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Financial talk for the rest of usTue, 03 Mar 2015 21:17:22 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.0Some Thoughts on the Parable of the Fisherman and the Bankerhttp://www.thesimpledollar.com/some-thoughts-on-the-parable-of-the-fisherman-and-the-banker/
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/some-thoughts-on-the-parable-of-the-fisherman-and-the-banker/#commentsSat, 28 Feb 2015 14:00:07 +0000http://www.thesimpledollar.com/?p=35848Over the last week, several people have sent me this story from a bunch of different websites. I’m not sure where it originated, but the first place I saw it was on Financial Mentor. Here’s the parable: The Parable of the Fisherman and the Banker An American investment banker was taking a much-needed vacation in ...

]]>Over the last week, several people have sent me this story from a bunch of different websites. I’m not sure where it originated, but the first place I saw it was on Financial Mentor. Here’s the parable:

The Parable of the Fisherman and the Banker

An American investment banker was taking a much-needed vacation in a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. The boat had several large, fresh fish in it.

The investment banker was impressed by the quality of the fish and asked the Mexican how long it took to catch them. The Mexican replied, “Only a little while.” The banker then asked why he didn’t stay out longer and catch more fish?

The Mexican fisherman replied he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs.

The American then asked “But what do you do with the rest of your time?”

The Mexican fisherman replied, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos: I have a full and busy life, señor.”

The investment banker scoffed, “I am an Ivy League MBA, and I could help you. You could spend more time fishing and with the proceeds buy a bigger boat, and with the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats until eventually you would have a whole fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to the middleman you could sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You could control the product, processing and distribution.”

Then he added, “Of course, you would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City where you would run your growing enterprise.”

The Mexican fisherman asked, “But señor, how long will this all take?”

To which the American replied, “15-20 years.”

“But what then?” asked the Mexican.

The American laughed and said, “That’s the best part. When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich. You could make millions.”

“Millions, señor? Then what?”

To which the investment banker replied, “Then you would retire. You could move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos.”

The Useful Lessons

This story is a really valuable one that teaches some worthwhile lessons about life and money.

Simplicity Has Great Value

That’s the big one, of course. Both the millionaire and the fisherman dream of a very simple life. When it gets right down to it, many of us dream of a very simple life. However, many of us are saddled with situations and desires that pull us away from that simplicity, making it less of a reality and more of a dream.

We don’t have to have complex lives. We don’t have to have a job that we hate. All that job does is pay us more money… but what will we really do with that money? Do we use it to secure our lives? Or do we just buy progressively more expensive stuff?

The simple things in life often have great value. I find again and again that when I think of my ideal future, it’s a simple life, not too different than the life of this fisherman. I want to fill my days with writing, with some time with friends and loved ones, and with my hobbies and passions. I want little stress and little demand on my time and energy except for when I choose to give it.

Instead of earning $80,000 a year and spending every dime of it to live a life of alternating stress and creature comforts, why not live a life earning very little but with very little stress? A simple life eliminates countless points of stress and gives you the time and energy and freedom to do those things.

A Simple Life Is a Frugal Life

Think about that nice life that the fisherman describes again. “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos: I have a full and busy life, señor.”

That life is a pretty cheap one. He catches most of his own food and probably has a garden to fulfill the rest. He doesn’t need a mansion for this lifestyle. He sips wine in the evening, but it’s probably wine given to him by friends and he likely gives them fish in exchange for it.

He doesn’t have a lot of material needs. His life is inexpensive and full of many, many pleasures. He has romantic time with his wife. He has time for his children. He has time for his hobbies – playing guitar – and his friends.

These pleasures don’t cost money at all. This life can be lived very cheaply.

It’s all the extras we choose to add to our lives that devour money. A bigger house – remember, he probably has a two or three room tiny house. A car or two or three. A television with a cable package. Prepackaged food for quick preparation because we don’t feel like we have time for it. Garbage pickup for all the trash we generate. A cell phone with a data plan.

All of that stuff really isn’t necessary, but we choose to convince ourselves that it is, and in that process, we ensure that we can’t have this beautiful simple life. We have to earn a lot more to pay for all of the things we’ve convinced ourselves that we need.

The Problems

The problem is that the dream of the millionaire isn’t really exactly like the life of the fisherman. Sure, in both cases, the person would live in a small coastal fishing village where you could sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, and so on.

But there are some key differences, and those differences demonstrate some of the real problems with this simple story.

Lack of Security

Let’s say a hurricane strikes this little fishing village. The fisherman who has not built a secure future for himself will likely struggle to even put food in his mouth for a while. If his house is gone and all of his fishing equipment is gone, he has nothing. In order to gain any of that back, he’s going to have to work hard.

The millionaire likely pays for hurricane insurance (or for insurance against whatever kind of disaster may happen). He’s able to do this because he’s earned so much money from his business activities.

What happens if the fisherman gets sick and can no longer fish for his family’s needs? Likely, they’ll quickly slip into extreme poverty. He likely won’t be able to access medical care and even if he does, the cost will be absolutely back-breaking for the fisherman and his family.

The millionaire has health insurance. If he gets sick, he goes wherever he needs to go for medical help and the insurance takes care of it.

What happens if the fisherman dies suddenly? Again, his family is quickly in dire straits.

The millionaire, on the other hand, has life insurance that will keep his family safe.

The truth is that as idyllic as the fisherman’s story sounds, it is still a stressful life if you look too close. It’s far from perfect.

Entrepreneurship’s Challenges

What are the problems with the path proposed by the rich man, then? The rich man makes his path of entrepreneurship look like an easy path, but it’s loaded with risk. If it were as easy as the rich man describes to build a thriving shipping business out of nothing in just a few years, it would happen all the time.

The truth is that it takes a lot of work and a lot of luck and often some talent, too, in order to make a business idea successful. Most don’t try. Most who try, fail. It’s only the sliver that remains that are actually successful.

Having said that, you can only succeed if you try. That’s the big secret of starting a side business, whether it’s something as simple as starting a blog or a Youtube channel or something like starting a fishing boat fleet. If you just shrug your shoulders and say “I can’t do it…” you never will.

The Plan

So, is there a happy medium between the millionaire and the fisherman? One that balances the happiness and simplicity and lack of stress of the fisherman with the security and organization of the millionaire?

I certainly believe so. Here are the four key tenets of that plan.

Live Frugally – Spend Far Less Than You Earn

Here’s a big secret: most of the stress of modern financial life comes from spending everything we earn as soon as we earn it (or close to it). It’s that approach to life that keeps us from saving for the future. It’s that approach to life that has 76% of Americans living paycheck to paycheck and the majority of Americans having virtually nothing saved for retirement.

It’s that same philosophy that keeps us stressed out. It’s that same philosophy that ensures that our futures are linked to our jobs until the very end of our lives.

That philosophy doesn’t work. You need a new one, one that’s centered around living a life that focuses on spending significantly less than you earn, eliminating all of your debts, and saving a very large portion of your pay.

My perspective on this is that you’re choosing to live the life of the fisherman – at least as close as you possibly can while still earning a healthy income. Live in a small home. Live a simple life without lots of extra expenses. Savor free time and new experiences and friendships and family. Don’t worry so much about having lots of things or having all of the trendy experiences.

This is the real kicker: if living a simpler life doesn’t really appeal to you, then why are you reading this article at all? If you don’t have the goal of this kind of free life, then this entire plan doesn’t apply to you.

Living frugally simply means adopting many of the aspects of a simpler life now rather than later. The result of that choice is lower stress, more security, and a gradual progression toward a point where your financial future is completely unlinked from your work.

Plan for Financial Independence Sooner, Not Retirement Later

Many people view retirement as a state where they can completely stop working and just “enjoy life.” Well, for me, and for a lot of people, a life without doing anything productive and enjoyable sounds like complete misery. I might enjoy it for a few months, but after that, I would be miserable.

Life is at its most enjoyable when I have something productive to work on. Ideally, it comes on my own terms without the stress and strict deadlines of a high-paying professional career, but it gives me something to fill my hours in an enjoyable way and earns at least some income. It might earn a lot of income – but, again, wholly on my own terms.

I call this state “financial independence,” not retirement. I will probably be earning a small income in this state, but I don’t need to be earning a large income.

What this means is that I don’t necessarily need as much in the bank as I would in the event of full retirement, but I need that amount sooner.

What does that mean? With a closer “deadline,” it’s even more imperative that I save a lot today. If I’m shooting for a large amount in 30 years, I can rely on the power of compound interest to build up much of the amount that I’ll need. However, if I’m shooting for a smaller but still fairly large amount in 15 years, I can’t rely as much on compound interest to carry me to my destination. I need to save big – now.

This falls right in line alongside the idea of living the life of the fisherman today – or as close as you can. If you live a simple, low cost life, it becomes much easier to put a lot of money in the bank, which moves you to that point of financial independence at a very healthy pace.

Start Side Gigs

Entrepreneurship is a very valuable tool that can really help you accelerate your path to financial independence, but for many people, it’s not a viable long term option to simply say “I’m done with my job and I’m starting this business from scratch.” Take me, for example. I have three young children at home. It is somewhat possible for me to wake up tomorrow and say that I’m quitting my job to launch a business, but that’s only because I’ve been saving like a madman for years. For the vast majority of people, it’s just not realistic – they need that security of a steady income.

So how can you enjoy doing something that you love with the potential of seeing it earn a ton of money if things go well while still having a secure job? The key is a side gig.

When I say “side gig,” I simply mean finding a way to do something that you love on a freelance basis in your spare time in the hopes that you’ll earn some money at it. Rather than dreaming about being a novelist, for example, just write a novel, edit it, and self-publish it on the Kindle store. Rather than dreaming about being a painter, start painting and sell some of your best works at community events. Rather than dreaming about being a graphic designer, actually design some logos for community groups and put out your name in the community. Rather than dreaming about being on Sportscenter, start a sports commentary podcast and Youtube channel.

Do what it is that you love in your spare time. Share and sell what you produce. Get better and better at it.

What happens is that, again, you’re living part of that life of the fisherman. You’re filling your spare time with something that you love. However, you’re also being entrepreneurial. You’re opening the door to actually earning some income on what you do and, if things go really well, you might start earning a lot.

The thing is, this can never happen if you don’t start doing it. If you dream about doing things, start doing them now. Don’t keep filling your spare time with empty and unfulfilling things. Spend your spare time actually doing the things you’ve dreamed about doing.

Keep Your Eyes on the Prize

The biggest challenge in all of this is simply the distractions that a modern and complicated life throws at us. There are constant distractions. Technology distracts us. Popular culture distracts us. Advertising distracts us. The people we interact with every day distract us.

All of these things push short term desires in front of us. Those short term desires almost exclusively drain our time, our focus, our money, and our energy from our bigger goals in life without giving us nearly as much in return. Giving in to a short term desire gives us only short term fulfillment and takes us away from our bigger goals in life.

Don’t let that happen. Keep your eyes on the prize. Don’t give into those impulses. Instead, let them flow over you and watch how they simply disappear if you don’t give into them, like a mirage on a hot summer day.

It can certainly be hard at times. Letting those short term desires flutter by can leave you feeling like you’re missing out on life. The problem is that by grabbing onto those desires and giving your time and money and energy to them, you take your time and money and energy away from the rest of your life – and for what? A fleeting desire that passes in the night, leaving you nothing but an empty bank account and another day in which you didn’t do anything to get closer to the dreams you had for your life.

It’s not worth it. Stop worrying about what other people think. Stop desiring the latest gadget. Stop feeling jealous of the things that your neighbors have or your friends have. They won’t bring you anything that lasts. They won’t eliminate your stress – in fact, they’ll bring more of it. They won’t bring you closer to the things you really want in life.

Final Thoughts

The fisherman and the millionaire both have the same beautiful goal, but for many of us, neither path sounds perfect. The fisherman’s path is filled with risk, while the millionaire’s path requires entrepreneurial drive and a healthy amount of luck along with a guarantee of stress.

A much better approach is the one offered to thoughtful people in the modern world: a hybrid of the two that involves actively choosing a simpler life and putting money in the bank while choosing simple entrepreneurial paths based upon the things we’ve always dreamed about and always loved to do.

It’s a path that really works. That path led me to starting The Simple Dollar and today gives me the freedom to write for a living while being there at the door when my children come home from school. Sure, I don’t have every material thing I might desire, but in the end, I don’t really have time for most of that stuff anyway. I have too many things to do as it is – many of them deeply enjoyable and fulfilling – and Sarah and I are socking away money as fast as we can.

I hope to wind up where the millionaire winds up in that story – but I intend to do it on my own terms. You can do the same if you just make that choice.

]]>http://www.thesimpledollar.com/some-thoughts-on-the-parable-of-the-fisherman-and-the-banker/feed/0This One Move Can Save You $1,000 a Yearhttp://www.thesimpledollar.com/this-one-move-can-save-you-1000-dollars-a-year/
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/this-one-move-can-save-you-1000-dollars-a-year/#commentsTue, 24 Feb 2015 20:00:08 +0000http://www.thesimpledollar.com?p=35324&preview_id=35324It lets you shop endlessly on eBay. It keeps you tuned into the latest water-cooler gossip on Facebook. It allows you to follow photo stories of people — some you know, some you don’t — on Instagram. You can watch endless videos while waiting for the train. Access your email everywhere you go, and an entire music library right ...

In addition to saving you money, ditching your smartphone can reduce distractions at work and help you be more attentive around people you care about. Photo: Matthew G

It lets you shop endlessly on eBay. It keeps you tuned into the latest water-cooler gossip on Facebook. It allows you to follow photo stories of people — some you know, some you don’t — on Instagram. You can watch endless videos while waiting for the train. Access your email everywhere you go, and an entire music library right at your fingertips.

Anyone can reach you any time in a seemingly endless number of ways. Sounds great, doesn’t it?

Until you see pictures of teens and adults alike ignoring people in the same room because everyone is staring at their handheld devices.

Cellphones today have more memory and power than the biggest computers in the world did just a few decades ago. The technology advancements in the last 10 to 20 years have been nothing short of astounding. But every now and then we need to take a step back and ask whether our technology is working for us or against us.

So with life at our fingertips, what could we have to possibly complain about? For starters… the price we pay.

Cellphone plans that include data run about $150 a month with taxes, surcharges, and fees. Do the math and that’s $1,800 a year to use a smartphone.

Seems steep, doesn’t it? Especially considering you probably have Internet at home and/or at work. So is it really worth another $1,000 a year to have Internet on your phone, too?

Unlimited talk and text plans run about $55 a month, or $660 a year. That’s a savings of about $1,120 to use a phone with unlimited talk and text instead of a smartphone.

We’re living in an era when data, phone, and smartphone plan prices are bordering on criminal and haven’t gotten close to the point of being favorable to the end users (you and me). Cellphone providers are making huge profits, but the price of data hasn’t dropped to the point where an unlimited monthly data plan is a justifiable investment for most consumers.

Fortunately, there is good news coming as technology continues to improve and cellphone plans and data rates will become more affordable.

Power Off, Be More Productive

Give it a couple of years, and I bet smartphone rates and phone prices will come down to the point where getting an unlimited data plan and a cool smartphone won’t cost you hundreds of dollars a month. Until then, if saving money or paying down debt are your goals, pocket the $1,000 a year and think about all the other benefits of not having a smartphone:

Actually enjoy and experience the moment instead of just taking pictures of it to share with others.

No more worrying about going over your monthly data allowance.

Be more present, become a better listener, and improve the quality of time with the people you are with.

Be more attentive in meetings.

Make more actual phone calls, and thereby strengthen relationships with the people in your life.

Checking email just a couple times a day will allow you to get more done in less time with fewer interruptions. Exhale. You are no longer on email 24/7/365.

More end-of-the-night time with your partner, as you won’t be on your smartphone in bed (it’s okay to admit it, we all do it).

A better night’s sleep, as studies have shown staring at illuminated screens before bed makes it harder to fall asleep and disrupts sleep patterns.

Like how this sounds, but not quite ready to take the leap? Consider that the $1,000 a year doesn’t even factor in what you paid for your smartphone.

Here is a small step you can take tomorrow: Leave your cellphone at home for the day or, if you work from home, turn your phone off for 24 hours.

Most people who try this are shocked to find just how programmed they are (even when the phone doesn’t buzz) to interrupt themselves and check their phones. And for what? To aimlessly surf the Internet, socialize, and check email?

We are the first generation to deal with smartphone addiction — and to pay $1,000 a year to use a technological marvel that didn’t exist just a decade ago. It reminds me of smoking. While I’m not a smoker, smoking also costs people thousands of dollars a year and is extremely addictive. Not to mention bad for your health.

Are smartphones the new cigarettes? I certainly wouldn’t go that far, but they are a new addictive phenomenon that has taken the world by storm.

And maybe you want to be part of it all. That’s fine.

But take a step back and a bit of time away to make the decision for yourself as to whether or not smartphones and data plans are a good investment of your money and time. At the very least, consider turning your phone off for 24 hours as a first step to see what it feels like.

Joe Sweeney is a social entrepreneur, committed to helping individuals and organizations grow and solve problems. Most recently, he was the co-founder and CEO at 100state, a nonprofit, startup community of entrepreneurs, educators, and innovators in Madison, Wis. Joe was recently named one of 53 entrepreneurs on Madison Magazine’s “M List: The New Who’s Who” for his work with 100state.

]]>http://www.thesimpledollar.com/this-one-move-can-save-you-1000-dollars-a-year/feed/012 Money-Saving Food Strategies My Family Useshttp://www.thesimpledollar.com/twelve-money-saving-food-strategies-my-family-uses/
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/twelve-money-saving-food-strategies-my-family-uses/#commentsTue, 24 Feb 2015 14:00:39 +0000http://www.thesimpledollar.com/?p=35567Over the years, our family has steadily built up a number of little “food hacks” that we use to save money and time when buying food and preparing meals at home. Often, we don’t even really think about them, but sometimes, when we step back and look at our meal patterns, we see lots of ...

Instead of pouring out the last of the coffee, freeze coffee ice cubes to make a refreshing drink another time. Photo: Jimmie

Over the years, our family has steadily built up a number of little “food hacks” that we use to save money and time when buying food and preparing meals at home. Often, we don’t even really think about them, but sometimes, when we step back and look at our meal patterns, we see lots of little things that we do to save money on our food expenses.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been taking note of some of these little tactics. Here are 12 of the most useful ones that I’ve seen. Hopefully, you’ll find that some of these help save you money, too, and maybe even a little bit of time as well.

1. Use flash-frozen vegetables as a side dish and smartly save the remnants.

Whenever we see flash-frozen vegetables on sale, we buy a ton of them. We can often find them at $1 per bag and sometimes even less than that, but even at a normal price, it’s a pretty good deal. Often, they come in bags that make it easy to prepare them as a side dish – all you have to do is toss the bag in the microwave and five minutes later you have steamed vegetables.

Our family usually eats most of that portion as a side dish – usually with some salt and pepper on the vegetables. What about the remainder? We put it in a small container in the freezer and continually add the other leftover vegetables. Over time, we’ll end up with a mix of things in that container – green beans, broccoli, corn, peas, and so on, all lightly seasoned with salt and pepper.

Eventually, we’ll need a quick soup, so we’ll just take some broth, bring it to a boil, add those vegetables, and let it simmer for fifteen minutes or so. If you have some leftover chicken pieces or something similar, you could add those, too. It’s basically a free meal made out of our vegetable leftovers from the last few months.

2. Skip packaged produce unless there’s no other option.

Yes, packaged produce – like salad mixes or containers of chopped vegetables or fruits – can be kind of convenient, but you pay dearly for that convenience. If there’s one place where the grocery store can really hammer your wallet in the fresh produce area, it’s through prepackaged produce.

First of all, the items in the packages – especially the salad mix, but also the prepared fruits and vegetables – will almost always go bad faster than non-prepared items. That’s okay if you’re going to consume all of it tomorrow, but if you’re not, it’s likely that you’re going to be left with items in the fridge that are going bad.

Second, the items themselves are overpriced compared to the non-packaged versions. Look at the contents of that salad kit, then walk over to the other side of the produce section at the fresh greens and compare the prices. Almost always, the fresh unpackaged greens are way cheaper. Compare, for instance, the pack of three bell peppers wrapped together to the price of single bell peppers. Three single bell peppers are almost always far cheaper.

Third, very little extra prep is needed in many cases. Take your greens home, rinse them, chop off a few stems (which will take you a minute or two), and toss them in a bowl with whatever dressing you want. If you have a prepackaged mix, you’re going to be doing most of that anyway – and, trust me, you still need to rinse that salad in the salad kit. The convenience really doesn’t add up to much at all.

Fourth, you’re mostly just paying extra for packaging. That packaging does nothing but fill up your garbage can and, eventually, a landfill. What’s the point?

On the whole, it’s usually far cheaper to buy your fresh produce outside of packaging.

3. Buy everything you can from the bulk bins.

At my local grocery store – and at many others like it – the store offers a partial aisle full of bulk bins where you can buy many common things by weight. Our local store offers things like beans, grains, spices, and many other things in these bins. In order to buy these items, you simply fill up a small container (that’s provided there), then weigh it and attach a label.

Virtually always, the items for sale from the bulk bins are cheaper than the packaged versions of the same items on the shelves. The steel cut oats are cheaper. The beans are cheaper. The spices are cheaper. Everything is cheaper from the bulk bins.

If you think about it from the store’s perspective, it makes sense. It’s got to be cheaper for the store to acquire a huge container of a particular grain or spice and just refill the bins out of that huge container than it is to keep the shelves full of individually-packaged items. The store has to cover the costs of that extra packaging and plus there’s the markup for more middlemen.

Not only that, I can examine and smell the items for sale in the bulk bins, while I can’t do that with other items.

As with everything, there are exceptions. There are occasions where the packaged version of an item is in fact cheaper than what you’ll find in the bulk bins. However, those occasions are rare and I usually feel confident buying exactly what I need from the bulk bins.

4. Chop up and freeze bananas that are on the verge of going bad.

My children love eating bananas, but sometimes we’ll still wind up with a few left over that are getting just a bit too old for them to enjoy. The skin starts to turn brown in places and they’ll just skip over them and eat an apple instead. However, they do still love them as ingredients in other things – and who wouldn’t? I think bananas are at their best as they just start to turn brown, as the flavors are at their strongest. Sure, the texture is a bit strange, but you can easily fix that by using them as ingredients.

However, I’m not always ready to use those older bananas when they’re at their best. So, what I’ll often do is take those bananas, cut them into smaller pieces, and freeze them in a freezer-safe container.

What do I do with them? Those pieces make splendid smoothie ingredients, for starters. Maybe I’ll mix a handful of those pieces with some almonds, a little bit of some leafy green vegetables, a handful of another fruit (maybe a diced apple) and a big cup of green tea. I’ll put all of that in a blender and puree it for a delicious and inexpensive snack that often serves as a lunch for me. You can also use those pieces for things like banana bread or other baked goods when you’re ready, like this chocolate chip maple banana bread.

5. Never skip a good nonperishable sale.

If you have an item on your grocery list that’s nonperishable and you discover that it’s on sale, consider buying more of it. This is especially true if you know that it’s an item you use regularly and not just a one-off item.

For example, if the store has a sale on dried pasta, we’ll usually stock up and buy several boxes of it, saving on each box. Over the next few months, we’ll gradually use up that pasta, but each box we use from that sale purchase was cheaper than if we had just bought it at a random moment.

This works particularly well if you use a smart plan for preparing grocery lists. We start our grocery lists by looking at the store flyer and identifying items that are on sale. We base our meal plans around those on-sale items by figuring out sensible recipes, then we make our grocery list from that meal plan. If we can identify nonperishables that are on sale, fit into our meal plan for the week, and aren’t already stocked up in our cupboards, then it’s time to buy.

I usually make a note of this on my grocery list. I’ll often write “(sale)” after the item on our list and write something like “x6″ after it, reminding myself to buy several of this item.

6. Need buttermilk? Use a simple substitute instead.

Sometimes, I’ll find a recipe that requires the use of buttermilk. The problem is that the recipe usually only calls for a cup or so of it and you simply can’t buy buttermilk in that small of a volume at the store. Even if you buy the smallest container, it’s usually a pint and it’s usually far more expensive than regular milk.

The solution, of course, is to use a substitute. If you need a cup of buttermilk, just take a cup of regular milk and add a teaspoon of lemon juice (something we always have on hand around here). Stir it, then let it sit for five minutes. The milk will curdle just a little bit, but it works as a great substitute for buttermilk in almost every recipe.

I’ve used this exact trick many times to make a small amount of buttermilk for a recipe, including things like buttermilk biscuits. It keeps me from having to remember the buttermilk at the store and also keeps me from buying a container of buttermilk substantially larger than what I might need.

7. Buy rotisserie chickens and use them fully.

This isn’t actually a tip from our kitchen, but from one that I observed recently. A friend of mine and his wife pick up a rotisserie chicken for dinner about once a week and, I’ve got to say, the price on such chickens is pretty good.

Over the course of a meal or two, they eat all of the enjoyable meat from that carcass, but that’s not where it ends for them. Once it’s been picked over, they put that carcass in the slow cooker in the morning, fill it the rest of the way up with water and any leftover vegetables they have in the fridge along with a bit of salt and ground black pepper, and let it cook on low all day long. When one of them gets home, they strain the liquid, saving the broth but getting rid of the large pieces and carcass, and then use that for soup (if they’re hungry for that) or else just save the broth for soup another day.

It’s a way to squeeze more value out of a rotisserie chicken. Not only does it provide a couple of meals on its own, but by tossing it in the slow cooker in the morning and allowing it to slowly cook all day long, they also wind up with some delicious stock that they can use for a casserole or a soup later on. Often, the rotisserie chicken is the same cost as the stock they might have bought elsewhere, so it’s a nice savings.

8. Turn old coffee into coffee cubes.

My wife loves her morning coffee. I’m not a big fan, though I’ll occasionally drink some iced coffee in the afternoon.

Anyway, she’ll sometimes make a pot of coffee, particularly on a weekend morning, and then find that there’s a cup or two of coffee left over that she’s just not going to drink. While you certainly could just pour it out, a much better approach is to simply take that coffee, pour it into an ice cube tray, and stick it into the freezer.

When you have these frozen “coffee cubes,” you can do all kinds of things with them. For example, if you want a nice iced drink in the afternoon, put a few “coffee cubes” into a cup and pour a little milk over the top (along with any other sweetener you might want to add).

This not only keeps you from wasting coffee, it provides you with a very cheap and tasty drink for another day.

9. Whenever you’re about to buy, look up, then down.

Most of the time, grocery stores stock the shelves by putting the item that they most want you to buy – which is usually the one with the highest markup – at eye level on an average person. They put the ones that are less of a profit-maker for the store either on the top shelf or on the bottom shelf so that those aren’t the items you see first when looking about.

Knowing that, it’s pretty easy to come up with a financially smart strategy in the store. When you’re about to buy something, look up at what’s on the top shelf in that area, then look down at the bottom shelf in that area. You’ll often see things like store brands that are cheaper in price, bulk purchases of that item, or better brands at the same price.

This isn’t always going to work, as not every store stocks everything using the same strategy. However, a simple glance up and down will almost always reveal buying alternatives for you and if that simple glance can save you $0.50 or $1 for the few seconds it takes, why not make it into a habit?

10. Preserve fresh herbs for Italian meals without drying.

This is one of my favorite little tricks. I love making Italian dishes with fresh herbs in it, but there are a few problems with this. First, during the summer when fresh herbs are coming out of our garden, we generate too much to use. We often dry it, but we still end up with plenty of excess. The same is true in the winter. If I get a strong desire for some fresh herbs in an Italian dish in the middle of a upper Midwest winter, that means I’m buying some fresh herbs at the store. It’s expensive, but the other problem is that we usually wind up with too much of that particular herb and we can’t use it all before it starts to go bad, but it’s not really worth it to dry it.

The solution to all of this is simple. If you have some excess fresh herbs that you want to use in a month or two, but you don’t want to go to the effort of drying them, just put a healthy amount into each section of an ice cube tray, then add olive oil to the tray and pop it in the freezer.

What happens is that the olive oil freezes – it has a freezing temperature just a hair higher than water. These become what we call “Italian cubes,” which are just frozen cubes of olive oil with fresh herbs embedded in them.

When you’re ready to make an Italian dish that calls for olive oil and fresh herbs – and a lot of these dishes do – just pull out that tray and pop out a cube or two. You can use them directly in the cooking as the cubes will quickly melt and become a great mix of olive oil and herbs.

Olive oil “cubes” with basil and oregano already embedded make it really easy to prepare Italian dishes while also drastically extending the life of these fresh herbs.

11. Haggle on items near the “sell-by” date.

If you’re shopping for an item and discover something on the shelf that’s close to the “sell-by” date (which doesn’t indicate that the item is bad, just when the original manufacturer recommends that the item be sold by for maximum freshness), don’t be afraid to ask whether or not you can get this item at a discount. You’d be surprised how often a manager will knock down the price for you or give you a coupon.

A tip on this strategy: don’t do it when the store is crowded or else the manager will probably quickly say “no” and move on to another problem, as there will be many on a very busy day. Choose a time when the traffic is low and most of the employees are doing things like stocking shelves rather than helping customers.

If you choose a low-traffic time to ask about an item, you’re much more likely to get individual attention and get a discount on such items. If you’re going to use the item in the next day or two anyway, it makes no difference to you except that it suddenly costs less than before.

12. Eat just before you go to the grocery store.

In other words, plan your grocery shopping trip for right after breakfast, lunch, or dinner. This is such a simple strategy, but it works well for a number of reasons.

First, and most importantly, it keeps you from extra food impulse buys. If you’re hungry when you go through the store, everything looks good and you’re much more likely to toss unnecessary items in the cart. If you go when you’re not hungry, it’s much easier to overlook those things.

Second, walking around after eating is good for your health, according to this study. It aids greatly in controlling your blood sugar levels and fights off post-meal lethargy quite effectively. This is particularly true if you’re overweight or struggle with blood sugar or insulin-related issues.

Third, even when you do make food purchases, you’re more likely to choose healthy options. When you’re hungry, foods that are carbohydrate- and fat-heavy seem more appealing than those that are not.

Fourth, when you’re not hungry, you’re less likely to grab samples that are likely unhealthy.

What do those things add up to? They add up to lower costs at the grocery store now and lower health care costs later on in life. That’s a victory on both ends.

Final Thoughts

Most of these tricks aren’t magical. Some are little steps that can cut your costs on a few of your meals, while others are just smart tactics that you might already know but didn’t use because you didn’t see the full range of benefits.

The thing is that when you make lots of little changes like these that save a dollar or two but have little or no real impact on your life, that savings starts to add up. If you can make fifty little shifts in your life that save $2 per month each, that’s $100 a month.

The key is to focus on changes that you can easily incorporate in your life. There’s no point in adding a little change that causes misery; instead, just focus on the “best” way for doing the little things and, most of the time, that means the cheapest way.

]]>http://www.thesimpledollar.com/twelve-money-saving-food-strategies-my-family-uses/feed/0Here’s Why Being Frugal Gets Easier Over Timehttp://www.thesimpledollar.com/heres-why-being-frugal-gets-easier/
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/heres-why-being-frugal-gets-easier/#commentsTue, 24 Feb 2015 12:00:42 +0000http://www.thesimpledollar.com?p=35056&preview_id=35056Becoming frugal is a difficult change to make, especially if you’re trying to cut down on deep-rooted spending habits. Some people are born into frugal families and grow up learning about money management, delayed gratification, and investing wisely. Other people have to learn frugality on their own, whether they became inspired by a financial expert ...

How could you say no to that face? Resisting the urge to splurge on your kids can be extremely tough when you first try to curb your spending. But being frugal gets easier and more second-nature the longer you do it. Photo: Harsha K R

Becoming frugal is a difficult change to make, especially if you’re trying to cut down on deep-rooted spending habits.

Getting Started

Whatever your reason, the point is that you’re making changes that are bound to have a positive impact on your life forever. I have always had an oddly frugal bent. I’m not sure if I was born with this tendency or if it’s something I picked up over time, but I’ve always had a knack for saving money, even as a kid when my siblings would spend theirs.

There have been many times when people close to me have given me a hard time for my frugal ways, but I don’t let it bother me. I know that the way I choose to live my life now will benefit me in the future far more than any shopping trip or impromptu dinner date.

In fact, I’ve cut back even more this year than usual, since some of my grocery spending got out of control last year. In my opinion, even the most frugal people have room for improvement.

It’s a Worthwhile Challenge

I’m not going to lie, sometimes it’s hard being frugal, especially now that I have children. There are many times when I want to buy them something and decide not to. Then I feel guilty about it afterward. I just have to constantly remind myself that not only will my children benefit from growing up in a home that emphasizes smart money habits, but that being frugal, no matter what stage you’re in, definitely gets easier over time.

Here are some reasons why:

1. Practice, and You’ll Get Used to It

When you decide to eat better and cut out junk food, it takes time for your body to adjust. For the first few weeks, you might still crave fast food or really amazing queso (or perhaps that’s just me). Similarly, when you decide to be more frugal, your brain will still crave a trip to the mall, a nice dinner date, or that really pretty throw pillow you spotted at Pottery Barn.

It takes time to turn off these triggers, to learn what makes you spend, and to teach your brain to find enjoyment in a different way. Just like eating better, as each month passes, frugality and reduced spending become a normal part of your daily routine.

Eventually, you won’t have to try to be frugal. One day you’ll wake up and realize that you simple are.

2. Others Will Get Used to Your Frugality

I know it shouldn’t matter what other people think, but most spending problems come as a result of trying to keep up with the Joneses. So, when you decide to stop participating in the rat race, people will have varying reactions to it — and sometimes those reactions can be negative and disappointing.

For example, maybe your best friend will be mad because you stopped going to the gym with her since you canceled your membership. Or perhaps your co-worker is annoyed that you won’t split a pizza with them at lunch anymore.

However, over time people will begin to understand that your life is different now. As each month goes by, you’ll have to explain yourself less and less. The more comfortable you become with the decision to be more frugal, the more other people will, too.

3. You’ll Inspire Others

Money is such a taboo topic, but it shouldn’t be. There are many people who want to be better about their finances, and if you’re open about your quest to become more frugal, you can easily inspire them to do the same.

I’m not saying to create an entire army of frugal followers (although that would be awesome). I’m simply pointing out that if you’re open to discussing your frugal ways, you have an opportunity to help others.

For example, a friend of mine recently said she had just paid off her final credit card. It took her three years to do it, and she told me she was initially inspired by reading some of my writing. I had no idea she was working on that goal, and this is someone I talk to all the time. She wanted to save her announcement to tell me when her goal was accomplished. The fact that I helped her made me want to keep sharing my experience with frugality.

You never know who is listening, reading, or watching, so embrace your frugal ways and don’t be afraid to tell the world about it. Remember, it gets easier over time.

]]>http://www.thesimpledollar.com/heres-why-being-frugal-gets-easier/feed/0Four Tricks to Keep Your Food Spending at $50 a Weekhttp://www.thesimpledollar.com/four-tricks-to-keep-your-food-spending-at-fifty-dollars-a-week/
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/four-tricks-to-keep-your-food-spending-at-fifty-dollars-a-week/#commentsSun, 22 Feb 2015 17:00:53 +0000http://www.thesimpledollar.com?p=34669&preview_id=34669My New Year’s resolution wasn’t very glamorous. I didn’t decide to learn French or perfect certain yoga poses or save the world one good deed at a time. Instead, my one and only resolution was to keep food spending at $50 a week. In January, the first month I tried this, I was armed and ...

Unless you have superhuman discipline, use only cash to help you stay within your budget. Photo: torbakhopper

My New Year’s resolution wasn’t very glamorous. I didn’t decide to learn French or perfect certain yoga poses or save the world one good deed at a time. Instead, my one and only resolution was to keep food spending at $50 a week.

In January, the first month I tried this, I was armed and ready. My husband and I managed to spend just under $60 a week, and we were extremely proud. Coming from people who could spend as much as $700 a month on food for just two adults, this was groundbreaking.

I am ashamed to admit that my average was $60 a week and not $50 a week because I have a weakness for wine and asked my husband if he would bring home wine and items to make s’mores one Friday night. Hey, I never said I was perfect. I’m doing better this month!

We’re in the second month of our resolution, and we’re on track again. To be honest, this is probably one of the hardest money challenges we’ve ever been through, but we’re thrilled with the results.

Here’s how you can join us on this journey:

1. It’s All About the Cash

Using cash — only cash — is one of the best ways to make this severe grocery budget work. If you have the discipline of a superhero, congratulations. You can use your credit card. If you’re like everyone else in the world, take $200 out of the ATM and don’t let yourself use a penny more.

If you’re out of cash and you have 10 days of the month to go, it’s time to start raiding your pantry. You might be eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich while your spouse eats some pasta and parmesan cheese.

2. Forget the Packaged Items

You pay a premium for packaged items like meals in a bag, fruit snacks, pre-sliced produce, chips, or even steamed vegetables. Anything that has been processed and packaged comes with an additional markup. I’m no Betty Crocker, but I’ve learned that even though peeling potatoes takes a lot of time, it is so much cheaper that’s it well worth the effort.

Now that my children are eating solid foods, I am even more likely to purchase raw vegetables and other produce. I want them to eat healthy foods, and although produce can get expensive if it’s out of season, it’s still better for you and your wallet than run-of-the-mill processed snacks.

3. Plan It Out

I don’t know who this new person is, but I find myself flipping through magazines and Pinterest to find recipes. In my previous life, I would never have done this, even if someone paid me. Now, it’s like a fun and exciting challenge to find recipes that fit my budget.

With very little cooking background, I have made great soups and casseroles, two types of dinners that are heralded in frugal circles as some of the best bang for your buck at dinner time.

I used to buy salad products all the time, including toppings and nice salad dressings. Although it was healthy, I recently learned that salads are far more expensive than soups. Now, I make split pea soup and kale soup and lots of casseroles to help me keep within my budget. Deciding on recipes and planning meals in advance has been a lifesaver.

4. Lose the Meat

We recently hosted our friends who are vegan. My husband and I had a great time making a whole spread for them that was delicious and healthy. We even made them cookies, which I was skeptical about — until I tried them and declared them the best cookies ever.

It turns out that having a meal without chicken or steak is a great way to save money and keep the grocery bills hovering around $50 a week. As long as you ensure you’re getting all the proper protein and nutrients, there’s no problem going without meat every now and then to save money.

Overall, trying to stick to a food budget of $50 a week has been challenging — but also enlightening. I’m learning a lot about discipline, planning ahead, and creating new dishes.

There was a time in my life when I ate fast food all the time and my idea of cooking was mac and cheese. Now, as a mother and wife, I’m learning many new skills — the least of which is sticking to a cash budget for groceries.

]]>http://www.thesimpledollar.com/four-tricks-to-keep-your-food-spending-at-fifty-dollars-a-week/feed/0Everything You Need to Know About Listening to Podcasts, My Favorite Free Form of Entertainmenthttp://www.thesimpledollar.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-listening-to-podcasts-my-favorite-free-form-of-entertainment/
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-listening-to-podcasts-my-favorite-free-form-of-entertainment/#commentsThu, 19 Feb 2015 14:00:18 +0000http://www.thesimpledollar.com/?p=35330I spend the equivalent of a full-time job working at my computer or laptop, and that’s usually with audio turned on. On top of that, I have my cell phone almost everywhere with me and when I’m in the car; I usually plug it in and listen to the audio through my car’s speaker system. What ...

I spend the equivalent of a full-time job working at my computer or laptop, and that’s usually with audio turned on. On top of that, I have my cell phone almost everywhere with me and when I’m in the car; I usually plug it in and listen to the audio through my car’s speaker system.

What do I listen to? Podcasts.

Podcasts are free audio programs distributed over the Internet. You can download them and listen to them as you please, essentially creating a radio station focused entirely on the topics you want to listen to. There are podcasts out there covering almost any topic that you can imagine – and probably dozens of podcasts on that topic.

Because you can choose programs that match your interests and can swap programs in and out as you wish, it becomes much like having a customized radio station for yourself that you can even take with you wherever you go if you have a smartphone.

What are the basic things I need to know?

Podcasts really aren’t that different than any other kind of radio program. The only difference is that podcast creators distribute the episodes of their program over the Internet for everyone to listen to rather than using a traditional radio station.

Because podcasting is a very “do it yourself” format, podcasts vary greatly in quality. Some are recorded in professional studios, others in nice home studios with great microphones, and still others are recorded on a cell phone or with a simple cheap microphone. Some are hosted by people with great radio voices, while others are hosted by people who are excitedly nervous. I actually like this and consider it a feature; it’s really cool to listen to a podcast from someone who is doing it just because they love the topic they’re talking about.

How do people find interesting podcasts to listen to? Most of the time, people listen to podcasts using a podcast manager. A podcast manager is simply a piece of software that helps you find podcasts to listen to and keeps track of which podcast episodes you’ve listened to (and which ones you’ve haven’t). One feature that most podcast managers have is to simply listen to all of your unlistened podcast episodes.

Most of the time, people use their podcast manager software to find a new podcast and then they listen to an episode or two. If they like what they hear, they can usually subscribe to that podcast. What that means is that when a new episode of that podcast is released, that new episode appears almost immediately in your podcast manager so you can listen to it at your convenience.

Many popular programs already on the radio – particularly public radio programs – are also available in podcast form, so you can mix those in with other podcasts that don’t actually air on a radio station.

How do I listen to podcasts?

There are a lot of podcast managers out there that you can use to listen to and subscribe to podcasts. Here are a few of those options.

Desktop

Desktop programs allow you to download podcasts to your personal computer. These are the best options if you just use a single computer and perhaps sync that computer with a portable mp3 player.

iTunes (http://www.apple.com/itunes/) is easily the most ubiquitous podcast management tool. It works spectacularly well as a desktop podcast manager and allows you to easily find podcasts to listen to for free through the iTunes Store. It also has stellar integration with iDevices – iPhones, iPods, and iPads – so if you use those devices on the go, you can keep your list of subscribed podcasts and your record of listened-to and unlistened episodes in sync effortlessly.

gPodder (http://gpodder.org/) is probably the best desktop alternative to iTunes. It also has an integrated podcast directory that makes it easy to find new podcasts to listen to with just a few clicks and integrates well with Android mobile devices.

Web-Based

These options allow you to play podcasts directly from your web browser. These are great if you move from computer to computer and device to device but always have access to wi-fi and aren’t relying on a cellular data plan. Web-based podcast managers usually rely on streaming audio to present the sound to you, so if you’re going to be using a cellular Internet connection, it’s going to devour your data plan, so be careful.

ShortOrange (http://shortorange.com/) is probably my favorite of this group as it offers a great and easy-to-use interface on both desktop and mobile web browsers and you can play around with it without having an account (though it won’t track subscriptions or listens for you). If you tend to alternate between a desktop and a laptop for podcast listening, this is probably my recommendation.

Player.FM (https://player.fm/) is similar to ShortOrange but offers dedicated mobile apps for iOS and Android devices, which I consider a nice perk. If you alternate between a wide variety of desktop and mobile devices, this is probably the best choice.

Mobile

If you listen to podcasts primarily or exclusively on mobile devices, you have a lot of options. Here are two that really stand out.

Overcast (https://overcast.fm/) is easily my favorite podcast manager for iOS. It just works exactly as I want in my head. In fact, if they improved the web interface, it would be my only podcast manager. If you’re just listening using iOS almost all of the time and rarely listen elsewhere, this is my top recommendation.

Pocket Casts (http://www.shiftyjelly.com/pocketcasts), on the other hand, is my recommendation for Android users. It features a great interface, syncs well across multiple Android devices, and is very smart about downloading episodes when you’re around wi-fi instead of using mobile data.

How do I find podcasts to listen to?

All of the podcast managers I mention above are integrated with a great podcast directory that enable you to easily look for podcast recommendations based on topic, as well as look up podcasts by name (if you know the name of a particular one you want to listen to).

The “recommendation” engine varies a lot from podcast manager to podcast manager, but most of them make it easy to just browse through a list of topics – entertainment, games, sports, news, history, and so on – and then see lists of either the most popular podcasts in that topic or recommendations within that topic. If the categories are broad, there are usually dozens of popular podcasts within that topic.

There are many, many lists of great podcasts floating around on countless different websites. Just go to Google, type in a topic you like, and then follow that with the words “top podcasts,” and you’ll get a list of podcasts on that subject. (If you don’t get a good list, change your topic to something slightly more general, like switching “Philadelphia 76ers” to “NBA”).

What are some podcasts that you recommend?

This is kind of like drinking from a fire hose. There are many, many podcasts out there that I enjoy listening to and these just offer a sampling of those options. I am generally subscribed to somewhere around 50 podcasts at any given time and that roster rotates constantly as I try out new podcasts and drop other ones (not because I don’t enjoy them, but because there’s such a bounty of great podcasts out there).

Here are twenty podcasts that I really, really enjoy and I generally stay subscribed to all the time. A few of these are replays of radio programs, so you may have heard them before on your local NPR station, for example.

Serial is a season-based podcast where a single story is discussed in detail over a dozen (or so) episodes. The first season of Serial – which you can download in its entirety for about eight hours of listening – covers the details of a mysterious murder case in Baltimore, digging into the case in such nuance that you can’t help but wonder whether or not the courts actually understood things to that level of detail. If you enjoy mysteries, then you’ll love it. The depth here brings things to life.

This American Life is a weekly hour-long radio program that’s often aired on public radio stations. Each episode of the show focuses on one particular aspect of American life – one recent episode focuses on how Americans express anger, while another one focuses on how police see many situations differently than other citizens do. The episodes are usually broken up into a handful of segments, each with different people doing the presentation, giving it a surprising amount of variety within the topic of the day.

Radiolab focuses on scientific and philosophical topics, taking a broad topic like football and looking at it from a number of different angles, some very analytic and some not so analytic. This is usually done with a light touch and a nice sense of humor that makes for very enjoyable and sometimes thoughtful listening. Most episodes are about an hour in length, with some shorter episodes popping up from time to time, and there’s a fresh episode every week or two.

Hardcore History is a irregularly-produced podcast that focuses on incredibly deep and thorough coverage of a historical event, almost coming off like an extremely well done audiobook. For example, the host, Dan Carlin, has recently covered World War I in a five episode series with each episode lasting two to three hours. Carlin keeps the topic interesting by turning historical events into a narrative story and often describes how events of the past impact our lives today. I love it when a new episode of this pops up.

Tiny Desk Concerts is a series of short concerts performed in the offices of National Public Radio by a wide variety of musicians. You’ll hear everything from folk and country and Americana to rock and pop and classical and electronica and hip-hop and almost anything else you can imagine.

Sword and Laser is a weekly podcast hosted by Tom Merritt and Veronica Belmont that focuses on fantasy and science fiction books and short stories. They interview lots of authors and have a monthly “book club” where they select a book, give brief non-spoilerish discussions of it over the next few episodes, then have an all-spoilers discussion of it after that before selecting another one.

99% Invisible is a podcast focusing on design topics. How are things made? What about the decisions in the details of making things? The host Roman Mars tackles all kinds of different elements of design in a great discussion-oriented weekly podcast that lasts about thirty minutes per episode.

I enjoy sports, but I often get fed up with the bombast of sports discussions which often end with shouting or people yelling catchphrases. This one’s different. Stefan Fatsis, Josh Levin, and Mike Pesca host a weekly 90 minute podcast that discusses sports from a variety of angles without getting caught up in the shouting and emotion that often fill other discussions of sports on the radio (and on television for that matter).

This podcast, hosted by Michael Hyatt, is focused on what he calls “intentional leadership,” meaning that it’s a weekly discussion of the personal attributes and characteristics of what makes a great leader and how a person can cultivate them. This show really clicks when guests are brought on for discussions. The show branches out into things like personal growth, productivity, and other issues, but is always handled so smartly.

State of the Re:Union is a brilliant show hosted by Al Letson where he visits and looks at the challenges and issues facing one particular town or city in the United States each episode. He might look at a large city in the Pacific Northwest one episode, then hit a smaller city in the Heartland, then examine a tiny town in the South the next week. By looking at the nation from this town by town perspective, it begins to become clear that we all actually have a lot more in common than we think. This show has done more to help me reflect on the differences and commonalities among Americans than almost anything I’ve ever experienced.

Fresh Air is an hour-long daily interview program from NPR hosted by Terry Gross. The show mostly focuses on a single long interview with a single guest, but the guests have incredible variety from episode to episode. She might interview a politician one episode, a rock star in another, a writer in another, then a film star in another. It’s that variety that keeps me coming back for more.

Planet Money is a twice-weekly podcast produced by NPR that focuses on economic and personal finance news and perspectives. Planet Money is hosted by a fairly large staff that bring to life that connection between your day-to-day life and large-scale economic issues like the rise of the American dollar against foreign currencies. I firmly believe that letting this podcast run in the background sometimes inspires articles for The Simple Dollar in the back of my head.

The Pen Addict is a weekly hourlong show hosted by Brad Dowdy and Myke Hurley that focuses on pens, paper, and other analog tools. It’s a very niche topic but the incredible enthusiasm of the hosts really carry the show.

This is another show hosted by Dan Carlin (who also hosts Hardcore History, mentioned earlier) where the host discusses current events and politics in America. The host seems to try to find unique angles on the issues that don’t really fit into the usual liberal-conservative spectrum and usually leaves me thinking about current events in a new way – which is why I love it.

Marketplace is a daily (weekdays at least) radio program from American Public Media that’s shared in podcast form. Currently hosted by Kai Ryssdal, the show focuses mostly on business and economic issues, but is done in such a light and interesting fashion with some incredibly catchy music used to separate segments.

The Moth is just people telling stories, nothing more, nothing less. The podcast is simply audio recordings of live events where people get up on stage and tell a story about their life. It is incredibly human and leaves you fascinated with the varieties of human experience that exist in the world today.

This is a bizarre little mixed bag of things. The hosts, Mike Danforth and Ian Chillag, spend each episode answering a handful of “how do I…” questions on a wide variety of things. They might talk about how to make cheese in your basement then talk about how to cut ties with an old friend who has suddenly gotten weirdly political. The variety – and the enthusiasm of the hosts – makes this crazy mix work.

The Dice Tower is a podcast about board and card games hosted by Tom Vasel and Eric Summerer. The hosts have great enthusiasm for the topic and have no problem filling an hour a week with all kinds of discussion about new game releases, classic games, horrible (and great) gaming experiences, and so on.

TED Radio Hour is an hourlong show consisting of short talks on a shared topic by a variety of contributors. One week, the topic might be “love;” another week might center on “fears” or “secrets.” Often, the short topics focus on current research in those areas, while some of the topics might focus on applicable advice. The mix of voices and ideas adds up to brilliance.

Welcome to Night Vale is perhaps the strangest entry on this list. Each episode of the show takes the form of a “local news” radio program from a fictional town where strange and bizarre things happen. The show clicks because there are so many continued threads and stories from episode to episode that overlap in interesting ways. It starts a bit slow – you have to give it time – but it grows into a brilliant story that leaves you looking forward to the next episode each time. This is a podcast well worth starting from the beginning.

Final Thoughts

Podcasts are essentially a method for creating your own radio station, full of shows on topics you’re interested in and hosted by people who you like. If you don’t like a show, you have complete power to effectively cancel it by just hitting the “delete” button. You can listen to podcasts at home, when you’re walking, when you’re commuting, or pretty much anywhere else. You only hear repeats if you choose to hear repeats, so it’s always fresh.

In terms of sheer hours, podcasts have easily been my primary form of entertainment over the past several years. They play in the background when I’m working and they fill the air in the vehicle whenever I drive anywhere. I deeply enjoy listening to a wide variety of enthusiastic people discussing a wide variety of topics I enjoy. It never, ever gets old – after all, there’s always a new podcast around the corner to listen to.

Do you see asparagus and filet mignon? Or next week’s groceries? Photo: Zhang Wenjie

Welcome to our new reader-inspired series, Thrifty Thursdays. We want to hear your most ingenious buck-stretching strategies, stories about your famously frugal family and friends, or embarrassing tales of taking thrifty too far.

Send your stories to thrifty@thesimpledollar.com, and we may mention you in an upcoming Thrifty Thursday post. Each week, we’ll select our favorite entry, and the winner will receive a $25 Amazon.com gift card.

This Week’s Winner: Frugality Foils a Wedding Anniversary

It’s not always easy being frugal, especially if your friends or loved ones aren’t on the same page as you. This week’s winner, Darcy, wrote to tell us how her frugal instincts almost spoiled her husband’s pricey anniversary plans.

While this wasn’t the most romantic story we received — in fact, as you’ll see, it was kind of a bust — it was certainly the most entertaining, and something so many of us can relate to. She writes:

“My husband frequently rolls his eyes at my frugality, so for Thrifty Thursday I asked him what his best (worst?) story about me was.

My story isn’t about Valentine’s Day, but our first wedding anniversary. We’d made a romantic day of it — first we went to the beach, then we wandered downtown all dressed up, then finally he surprised me with dinner reservations at a high-end steakhouse.

We got to the steakhouse and right off the bat I was uncomfortable with how fancy it was — the way the maître d’ treated us like royalty, the free glass of champagne to help celebrate.

When I saw the menu, I actually cried. The prices were so high, each entree could have bought us groceries for a week. I wanted to leave, but my husband had already ordered a bottle of wine. He somehow talked me into staying, and I tried to put a smile on my face, but the amount of money we spent still makes me feel a little sick. The evening never really regained the fun, celebratory attitude we’d enjoyed all day.

And that’s how my frugality almost ruined our first anniversary. (In my defense, we had just moved, so we’d paid rent and utilities on two apartments the month prior — so our spending was already off-the-charts high.) With our second anniversary around the corner, we’ve got another chance to celebrate, and hopefully laugh at the memory of our first.”

Honorable Mentions

Don’t worry, there are still plenty of couples out there finding frugal ways to keep the spark alive.Jo from Greenville, S.C., suggests putting your feelings in writing, saying, “When you can’t decide on the perfect gift, write down your feelings about your loved one instead. You are only limited by your imagination, not your budget. Since before we were married, my husband has celebrated me on paper every Valentine’s Day (and on many other occasions, too). I have saved and cherish every single message.”

Skelton of A Life Beyond Money echoes that sentiment, adding a few more ways to show you care: “My husband makes beautiful cards and writes something lovely inside. During the growing season, I like to pick a bouquet of wildflowers for his desk. We like to give each other massages or cook something wonderful together. We have lots of free or cheap dates and try to have a date a few times a week so we can reconnect. We like hiking together (he’ll pick a place with great flowers because I love botany, and I’ll pick a place with lots of bridges because he loves to peek over the edges). Sometimes we’ll take a long walk through town, perhaps getting an ice cream cone or coffee to enjoy as we walk, sometimes we bring coffee or a snack from home. Going to museums on free days is really fun; we get to explore and learn together.”

Rochelle on Facebook adds, “My husband wrote 25 reasons I love you and 25 ways I will show it. Like walks, kids, ironing, dishes, cooking, clean, bath water, run, make up bed, massage, foot rubs, etc. … and acted on all the ways during the next couple of weeks.”

Finally, Denise from Brazil offers a suggestion that might not go over too well in the U.S. — particularly during a dinner date, unless you and your partner are really on the same page. She says, “It’s not doable when eating out at fancy restaurants, but it’s 100% feasible in restaurants targeted to younger people, especially the ones crowded by university students where you can order a variety of junk food such as hamburgers and french fries and sit down in a large group while drinking beers. When we spot a table with many finger-food leftovers (such as french fries in a platter or Outback’s Bloomin’ Onion … we just go and bring them to our own table. I’ve witnessed many groups of friends doing this at various places on many occasions. The waiters usually don’t mind since the group is consuming other (paid) foods together, but it saves some money anyway and it’s less wasteful.”

She continues: “Of course, it only applies to finger foods, since this way the leftovers are untouched. There’s usually some eye-rolls from the more elegant friends in the group, but besides that it’s generally OK. It was only embarrassing once, when, at Outback, we retrieved a half-full Bloomin’ Onion abandoned at the entrance (they let people order entrees to eat at the waiting room, because there were hours-long lines), but the original group of girls who ordered it came back inside to fetch a forgotten coat and spotted us with our hands full in their onions (they laughed to death at us).”

Now It’s Your Turn

Got a great money-saving technique you want to share, or a funny story about ultra-frugal living? Tell us about it in the comments, through social media using the hashtag #ThriftyThursday, or send an email to thrifty@thesimpledollar.com, for a chance to be included in next week’s post. And remember, one winner each week will receive a $25 Amazon.com gift card!

]]>http://www.thesimpledollar.com/thrifty-thursday-valentines-day-edition/feed/012 Wildly Romantic Gestures in Movieshttp://www.thesimpledollar.com/12-wildly-romantic-gestures-in-film-that-you-could-do-for-free/
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/12-wildly-romantic-gestures-in-film-that-you-could-do-for-free/#commentsTue, 10 Feb 2015 17:00:35 +0000http://www.thesimpledollar.com?p=33346&preview_id=33346Love is patient. Love is kind. Love is frugal, too. Sure, splurging on a diamond necklace, an exotic getaway, a cherished memento, or a fancy dinner out are lovely ways to show your partner how much you care. But sometimes the most powerful romantic gestures don’t cost a thing — just some time, thought, and ...

Sure, splurging on a diamond necklace, an exotic getaway, a cherished memento, or a fancy dinner out are lovely ways to show your partner how much you care. But sometimes the most powerful romantic gestures don’t cost a thing — just some time, thought, and effort.

Want to wow your loved one this Valentine’s Day without spending a fortune? Hollywood can offer some inspiration. We’ve gathered a dozen of the most romantic gestures in movie history that were totally free.

But, before you try to replicate these, keep in mind that you don’t have a script, a director, or 20 takes to get it right.

“Watching a romantic gesture and actually performing it in real life are two very different things,” says media critic Robert Thompson, trustee professor and founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University. “You don’t have boom mics and sound people and lighting … so tread carefully. As well as it may work in that movie, it really can come off as pathetic in real life.”

That’s not to say you can’t adapt some of these famous movie moments for your own relationship. Grand romantic gestures tend to follow certain themes, Thompson says.

“There are a couple of basic themes. One gesture is all about, ‘I love you and I don’t care how many people know it.’ From boomboxes to Jumbotrons to skywriting — showing you’re totally committed and you’re willing to announce it to the world,” Thompson says.

Perhaps no gesture is as free, or more romantic, than simply telling someone how you honestly feel with a public declaration of your love. Women value emotional honesty in their relationships, according to Psychology Today, and men want to feel appreciated. So tell your partner how you feel, and how he or she makes you feel.

Another common theme? “The second [theme] is where some kind of concession is being made,” Thompson says. On a grand scale, this might mean quitting smoking or ditching your two-seat sports car for a family sedan. But little concessions add up, too.

In fact, Thompson says, letting your partner pick the next romantic movie you watch might be the perfect example of such a concession.

“Your best bet to make one of these grand romantic gestures is not to do the thing portrayed in the film, but to go to one of those movies with the person you’re trying to impress,” Thompson says. “If a husband really wants to impress his wife, he’ll throw up his arms and say, ‘OK, I’ll watch “The Notebook” with you!’ That in itself is a big gesture.”

Turn Up Outside Her Window: ‘Say Anything’

Anyone who’s ever been dumped or longed for love — and that’s most of us — can relate to the iconic boombox scene. Lovable slacker Lloyd Dobbler (John Cusack) falls for class valedictorian Diane Court. Even though she’s out of his league, Diane agrees to go out with him, and eventually falls for him.

Later in the film, Diane’s father persuades her to break up with Lloyd. Dumped and heartbroken, Lloyd shows up outside her bedroom window. He holds a boombox above his head, blasting “In Your Eyes” by Peter Gabriel — the song that punctuated their most passionate moments — daring her not to feel something.

Runner-Up: ‘Romeo & Juliet’

There’s a reason lovelorn guys have been calling up to girls’ windows for hundreds of years, and that reason is Romeo Montague.

Selfless Acts of Devotion: ‘The Notebook’

OK, there’s plenty to choose from in this movie. But one of the most romantic things I can imagine is what Noah does for Allie in their older years.

Allie’s suffering from dementia, and no longer recognizes the love of her life. But Noah still goes to the nursing home each day, as a stranger to her, and reads her their love story.

Even when he’s finally able to break through the fog of her Alzheimer’s, it lasts just a painfully fleeting few minutes. But what wouldn’t you do for just a few more minutes with the one you love after they’ve gone?

Runner-Up: ‘Some Kind of Wonderful’

Just-friend Watts agrees to chauffeur Keith and Amanda on their extravagant date, even though she’s in love with Keith.

Don’t Be Afraid to Get Messy: ‘Ghost’

In this famous love scene, Sam (Patrick Swayze) interrupts Molly (Demi Moore) while she’s working on the pottery wheel late one night. Against the hauntingly beautiful backdrop of “Unchained Melody” by the Righteous Brothers, it gets messy, and it gets steamy.

The moral of the story? Make room for romance, even if it’s not the ideal time or place. You can clean up a mess, and you can finish working later, but you can never get back a missed opportunity to spend time with the one you love.

Runners-Up: ‘The Princess Bride’ and ‘Forrest Gump’

Robin Wright isn’t afraid of mucking up a dress. Playing Buttercup in “The Princess Bride,” she realizes she’s tossed her true love down a steep hillside — so she throws herself tumbling after him. And at the March on Washington in “Forrest Gump,” Forrest (Tom Hanks) is on stage when his childhood friend Jenny (Wright) — the girl he loves but has lost track of over the years — runs into the reflecting pool shouting his name. Forrest bolts through the crowd of thousands and jumps right in with her.

Musical Serenade: ‘The Wedding Singer’

Waitress Julia (Drew Barrymore) is engaged to a cheating business jerk. She and Robbie (Adam Sandler), a wedding singer at the function hall she works at, form a friendship — and start to fall for each other.

But, in typical romantic comedy fashion — particularly in the pre-cellphone era — miscommunication stirs trouble and hurt feelings. Though in love with Robbie, Julia decides to fly to Las Vegas with her rich fiance to get married. Robbie races to the airport to stop them, and, with the help of the flight crew and first-class passenger Billy Idol, serenades Julia with a song he wrote for her.

Beyond the epic, last-chance dash to the airport is a more genuine and realistic sentiment. Robbie’s song, called “Grow Old With You,” is sweet, silly, and sincere … the stuff that real love is all about: “I wanna make you smile whenever you’re sad / Carry you around when your arthritis is bad / All I wanna do is grow old with you / I’ll get your medicine when your tummy aches / Build you a fire if the furnace breaks / Oh it could be so nice, growing old with you.”

Make a Run for It: ‘Love Actually’

Most people swoon over a different scene in this movie — the one where the guy shows up at the door and silently holds up giant cue cards to tell his best friend’s wife that he loves her and thinks she’s perfect. Sure, it’s sweet, but c’mon — it’s his best friend’s wife.

That’s why I like the little kid ducking past airport security — with a bit of encouragement from dad Liam Neeson — and running through the gate to tell his classmate how he feels about her before she flies off. He’s taking a risk, putting it all on the line, and he’s overcome with that magical adrenaline of love.

This is certainly one of those don’t-try-this-at-home scenes Thompson warns about, though. Running past security at Heathrow Airport, even if you’re a cute grade-school kid, is never going to end well. Telling a girl how you feel is romantic. Getting detained and, let’s face it, quite possibly tortured after setting off a terrorist scare at the world’s busiest airport? Not so much.

Runner-Up: ‘When Harry Met Sally’

On New Year’s Eve, Harry finally realizes he’s in love with his longtime friend, Sally. He sprints through the city to meet her at a party for midnight, tells her all the reasons he loves her, and ends with, “I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.”

Benevolent Manipulation: ‘Life Is Beautiful’

This movie is all about love: love for your spouse, your child, and life itself. To get there, though, Guido first has to woo Dora, and he orchestrates all kinds of “coincidences” to help his case.

With a little luck and charm, and by paying attention to the daily routines around the village — knowing exactly what certain people say in certain situations — he’s able to make it seem as if heaven has blessed their first date.

Runner-Up: ‘Amelie’

Amelie sets up an elaborate trail of clues to ask out the guy she’s fallen for, Nino. Eventually she uses a similar approach to help Nino encounter the mystery photo booth man who fascinates him.

Make a Wish Come True: ‘The Fault in Our Stars’

Hazel and Augustus are teens who meet in a cancer support club.

Hazel is obsessed with a book called “An Imperial Affliction,” whose author is a reclusive genius. The book’s puzzling ending consumes her. She’s written the author dozens of letters to ask questions about it, but she’s never received an answer.

However, Augustus is finally able to track him down by contacting his publishing house and emailing his assistant. He then gives up his one and only wish that he received from “The Genies” (a fictionalized version of the Make-a-Wish Foundation), granted to him when he was first diagnosed with cancer, so Hazel can go to Amsterdam to meet her hero.

Honestly, that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Augustus Waters and romance. But we had to choose something.

Runner-Up: ‘A Walk to Remember’

Though Jamie is dying of leukemia, Landon helps her cross off items on her bucket list, like being in two places at once and seeing a comet in the spring. We should add: Your partner doesn’t need to be dying of cancer or leukemia for you to make their wish come true!

Chivalry and Defense of Honor: ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’

This wickedly funny movie may seem like an unlikely winner in the chivalry category. But even after Rachel (Mila Kunis) rejects him, Peter (Jason Segel), on his way out of town, takes down the topless photo of Rachel at a local bar that has bothered her for years. He does it without her knowing, and despite enduring a savage beatdown from the bar owner. That’s love.

Runner-Up: ‘Back to the Future’

Without any help from his future son Marty (Michael J. Fox), wimpy George McFly summons the courage to knock out drunken bully Biff and protect Lorraine from his aggressive advances — saving Marty’s future and his.

Self-Improvement: ‘Groundhog Day’

Cynical TV weatherman Phil (Bill Murray) is trapped in Punxsutawney, Pa., on Feb. 2, in a 24-hour loop. Every morning, it’s Feb. 2. After realizing and accepting his situation, he first experiments with womanizing, crime, and even suicide.

But in this endless workday, he starts to realize he has feelings for his kind and sincere co-worker Rita (Andie MacDowell). His attempts to seduce her fail, until finally he uses his excess of time to become the kind of man worthy of Rita’s affection: He learns to play the piano, sculpt her face in the snow, and speak French. More importantly, he opens his heart to the people in the town and becomes the kind, humble, and generous man Rita had been looking for.

Runner up: ‘Singles’

All Janet (Bridget Fonda) wants is a guy to say “Bless you” when she sneezes. But her self-absorbed musician boyfriend Cliff (Matt Dillon) just doesn’t care — until finally, at the end of the film, he says, “Bless you,” when she sneezes in the elevator.

Be Honest, and Accept Your Partner’s Faults: ‘Moonrise Kingdom’

On a fictional, Wes Anderson-imagined island in the 1960s, lovestruck 12-year-olds Sam and Suzy run away together. They set up a tent on the beach, and before going to bed, Sam tells Suzy it’s possible he might wet the bed later. “I wish I didn’t have to mention it, but just in case,” he says. “I don’t want to make you be offended.” She’s okay with it.

And after Suzy tells Sam, an orphan, that she always wished she’d been an orphan because their lives seem more special, he tells her honestly, “I love you, but you don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Honesty and communication are the foundations of any healthy long-term relationship, and what’s more romantic than that?

Relentless Pursuit: ‘The Princess Bride’

In probably the most epic sequence on this list, Westley never gives up on trying to be with his one true love, even if that means defeating a swordsman, a giant, a genius, a fire swamp, death itself, and an evil prince, and maintaining a sharp wit through all of it. Don’t try this at home.

Runner-Up: ‘The Graduate’

In this famous final scene, Ben (Dustin Hoffman) speeds down the California coast to the church where Elaine (Katharine Ross) is getting married. Running out of gas, he sprints the last leg, enters the church as the bride and groom are kissing, and pounds on the glass, shouting Elaine’s name wildly. A melee ensues. (Again: Don’t try this at home.)

…But if You Really Love Someone, Let Them Go: ‘Casablanca’

American ex-pat Rick (Humphrey Bogart) runs a popular “gin joint” in early World War II-era Morocco. His one-time lover Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) arrives in town with her husband — the reason Ilsa ran out on Rick in Paris years ago, leaving him bitter and heartbroken.

As tension mounts and they rekindle memories of their affair, it starts to look like Rick and Ilsa will finally be together. But Rick ultimately cares more about Ilsa’s safety and security than his selfish desire to be with her, telling her she’ll regret it if she doesn’t escape to the United States with her husband: “If that plane leaves the ground and you’re not with him, you’ll regret it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of your life.”

But, he says, “We’ll always have Paris.”

What are your favorite, free romantic movie moments? Tell us in the comments!

Break out the pen and paper: A simple love note, letter, or poem can mean much more than anything you buy at the store. Photo: Julie Edgley

With Valentine’s Day coming up, it’s prime time for the usual onslaught of carefully crafted radio and television ads aimed at parting you and your hard-earned dollars.

Turn on the tube and you’ll see jewelry stores explaining why your spouse deserves a diamond necklace, watch, or locket. Meanwhile, big-box retailers are bringing out their flowers, chocolates, and holiday knickknacks. Even appliance stores will make the case that your wife wants a new refrigerator, stove, or microwave for her desperately outdated kitchen. All of these retailers, and others, are intent on selling you stuff you don’t want and your spouse probably doesn’t need.

And the reason for all of this? It’s Valentine’s Day!

Love Doesn’t Cost a Thing

Fortunately, many of us are wise enough to see through the clever marketing strategies. We’re smart enough to realize that a new whatchamadoo will never show the people we love how we really feel. Material objects – appliances, jewelry, and polka-dot jammies – can never fill an empty heart. Simply put, you can’t buy love at Best Buy, Wal-Mart, or Kay Jewelers.

In other words, to really show someone you care, you have to show them.

That may be easier said than done, but there are plenty of ways to embody the spirit of Valentine’s Day without shelling out a single cent. So if you’re on a budget, saving for something that really matters, or simply tired of the consumerism, consider these frugal options for a sincere and simplistic Valentine’s Day to remember:

No. 1: Channel Your Inner Emeril

Valentine’s Day dinners out can be an expensive proposition, not to mention busy and stressful. After all, the National Restaurant Association reports that Valentine’s Day is the second-busiest day of the year for their industry – right behind Thanksgiving!

If you want to skip the madness and save some serious cash in the process, channel your inner Emeril or Giada and prepare an epic meal at home. The Internet is a treasure trove if you’re looking for simple and frugal versions of some of the tastiest and fanciest meals out there. Make a list of meals your partner typically orders when you’re out, and start looking for recipes that mimic them.

Can’t cook? Try an easy crock-pot meal instead. Then fancy it up by decorating your table or kitchen with romantic accents or candlelight. Break out the fancy china, too; you don’t want your significant other eating his meal on Dixie ware, do you?

No. 2: Arrange a Sitter Swap

It can be difficult to be romantic with children around. After all, kids make messes, ask a bazillion questions, and want you to do things for them. All. The. Time.

Sometimes spending a few hours in adult company is all it takes to lighten the mood and set a romantic precedent. The problem? Babysitters can be prohibitively expensive – especially when you’re paying to go somewhere at the same time.

Sitter swaps make it easier to get out of the house (or stay in) without spending a ton of cash on a sitter. All you need to do is hook up with a family member or friend who also wants some time away and trade your services. You watch their kids one night, and they’ll watch yours another. You may not get to go out on Valentine’s Day with this strategy, but you could always plan your date for the weekend before or after. Either way, you’ll end up with a free night that you can spend with the one you love.

No. 3: Be a House Servant for a Day

When life gets busy, it’s easy to put off projects around the house. Ask your spouse which projects are most important, and create a plan to tackle them on or before Valentine’s Day.

Offering to spend the day completing projects your spouse has her heart set on is a great frugal Valentine’s Day because it kills two birds with one stone: First, it gives your spouse what he or she truly wants. And second, it can get those pesky projects off your plate so you can focus on everything else in your life.

No. 4: Make Love With Words

The early years of a relationship are often a time of love notes, poetry, and whispers of sweet nothings. Unfortunately, life often gets in the way of those simple gestures, and they tend to fall to the wayside completely once you have kids.

But ask your spouse what she wants, and chances are she’ll tell you that she wants to be appreciated. She wants to hear that you still love her the way you once did, and that she is still the same beautiful creature you fell in love with in the first place.

A simple love note, letter, or poem can often mean so much more than anything you can buy at the store. So break out the paper and pen – and don’t be embarrassed! Sometimes the most important gestures are the ones that get you out of your comfort zone.

No. 5: Give Your Spouse a ‘Free Day’

Running a household can feel like a full-time job. Stay-at-home parents spend their days doing dishes, laundry, car maintenance, bills, pet care, shuttle service to and from kids’ activities, and homework. The list goes on and on. And the worst part is parents often go for weeks or months without a break from these responsibilities.

Offering to take on all household chores and duties for a day is a great way to show your spouse some love on Valentine’s Day without spending a cent. While you take on the household responsibilities, your spouse can spend the time doing anything he or she wants.

No. 6: Get Your Craft On

If you’re crafty, you should have no trouble coming up with a creative and unique homemade project for your loved one. Dream up a custom photo frame with pictures of the kids, build a shelf for your wife’s shoes or accessories, or fashion a holder for your husband’s favorite ties. Those are just a few examples, and you’re only limited by your own creativity.

If you’re not craft-minded, Pinterest is a good resource for easy and cheap homemade craft ideas for your loved ones. Consider these ideas: Create a simple scrapbook with your favorite wedding, family, or vacation pictures. Make some homemade chocolate or fudge using the easiest recipe you can find online, then box them in packaging with a holiday theme (almost anyone can dip some strawberries in melted chocolate). Have your kids draw or color your spouse something meaningful and frame their creations. The sky is the limit. Just go for it!

No. 7: Have Spa Day… at Home

Trendy spas can charge several hundred dollars for a day’s worth of pampering. Fortunately, you can re-create the spa experience in your own home for a fraction of the price.

Start by stocking up on basic spa essentials at your local convenience store: a facial mask, some massage oil, and some scented candles. Break out your old robes and take turns pampering each other with the kind of personal attention spas just can’t offer. Your spouse will appreciate the thought you put into it and the personal attention you give them — even if you aren’t the world’s best masseuse.

No. 8: Make a Custom Playlist

Remember when people made cassette tapes of their favorite songs off the radio? Today, you can pretty much do the same thing, but without the hassle and with much higher-quality sound.

Using iTunes or whatever music software you prefer, make your spouse or loved one a custom playlist with their favorite songs or your favorite love songs. Make sure to add any songs that might bring up memories about your relationship as well as songs from your wedding or early life together. Burn the music to a CD or create a custom playlist on their iPod or music player – and voila – you have a frugal Valentine’s Day gift that is both romantic and thoughtful.

No. 9: Create a Coupon Book

Valentine’s Day is only one day of the year. Why not give a gift that can be redeemed all year long? If you’re short on ideas and want to extend the value of your gift beyond Valentine’s Day, create a custom coupon book filled with services or ideas that are redeemable any time your spouse or significant other chooses.

Coupon ideas can include things like: 10-minute massages, car washes, grocery store runs, date nights, laundry days, or even free time. Be creative when considering what your spouse or partner really wants and make sure to offer up “gifts” he or she will actually enjoy. Just make sure the coupons you include are for services you plan to honor.

No. 10: Be a Better Spouse Year-Round

Want to really get your partner’s attention? Perhaps you should consider ditching the idea of Valentine’s Day altogether. Instead of being sweet and appreciative one day each year, try being a better spouse or partner all year long. Ignore the consumerism of the holiday and make a vow to be a more supportive, caring partner than you’ve ever been. Chances are, that will mean a lot more than anything you can wrap up and give anyway. Valentine’s Day is only one day, but your spouse has to live with you for a lifetime.

]]>http://www.thesimpledollar.com/10-frugal-ways-to-say-i-love-you/feed/063 Quick Tips to Save Money in Collegehttp://www.thesimpledollar.com/63-quick-tips-to-save-money-in-college/
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/63-quick-tips-to-save-money-in-college/#commentsSun, 08 Feb 2015 12:00:58 +0000http://www.thesimpledollar.com?p=33782&preview_id=33782We know college is expensive, and every little bit you can save helps. That’s why we’ve put together a list of quick tips to save money in school: Tuition & College Costs 1. Meet with your advisor regularly to plan your class schedule. This will help ensure that you’re taking the right classes at the right time ...

Investing in a coffeemaker and a travel mug can save you big bucks if you start brewing at home. Photo: Porsche Brosseau

We know college is expensive, and every little bit you can save helps. That’s why we’ve put together a list of quick tips to save money in school:

Tuition & College Costs

1. Meet with your advisor regularly to plan your class schedule. This will help ensure that you’re taking the right classes at the right time — some classes you need might only be offered during a certain semester — and keep you from taking unneeded classes that don’t count toward graduation.

2. Know the fees associated with the classes you’re taking. Some courses might have higher fees because of the special equipment used or for other reasons. If it isn’t required, consider a more affordable course.

4. Fill out the FAFSA, the Federal Application for Student Aid, to see what types of financial aid you can qualify for.

5. Borrow your textbooks from your college’s library or a local library.

6. If you can’t borrow your books, try to buy them used at a secondhand bookstore or online before buying them new.

7. Keep your books in good condition so you can sell them when you no longer need them.

8. Consider attending a less-expensive school. In general, public colleges cost less than private colleges, and in-state tuition is lower than out-of-state.

9. Consider attending a community college your first two years to save money and reduce your student loans before transferring to a four-year school.

10. If you’re headed home for summer and not taking classes at your college, take a few classes at a local community college if they’re cheaper than at your college.

11. When taking a course at a college other than the one you plan to graduate from, confirm that the course credits transfer to your college and count toward graduation.

12. If you’re turning to student loans, opt for federal loans before taking out private loans. Federal loans will likely have a lower interest rate and better borrower benefits, like subsidization during school and the ability to explore student loan forgiveness.

13. Do well in class. Certain courses may require a specific grade to count toward your degree, and you might need to meet a grade point average requirement to enroll in a certain course or even graduate. Retaking classes you failed the first time means you’re ripping up money.

14. Visit your financial aid office regularly. It’s a great way to learn about scholarships, aid, grants, and personal finance issues. This is also a great place to ask questions about your financial aid, loans, or anything else related to how you’re paying for school.

Spending and Earning

15. Create a budget, and stick to it. This could help you avoid impulse purchases since you need to keep track of your spending. Plus, it’ll help control what you’re spending.

16. Get a credit card with cash-back rewards. Pay for items with your credit card that you’d normally be buying anyway, like groceries and gas. Pay off your balance in full every month to avoid interest and debt.

17. Never buy a thing without asking about a student discount first. Take advantage of the many student discounts available when you’re traveling, dining out, shopping, or even looking for cellphone plans and car insurance.

19. Choose a bank that offers perks for students, like free checking or a no-fee policy for low minimum balances.

20. Make sure your bank has ATMs readily available on and around campus to avoid getting hit with fees for taking out money at a different bank’s machine.

21. Keep track of when your bills are due, as well as the account balance for your debit card. Late payment fees and overdraft fees won’t help you save money.

22. When shopping for clothes, opt for practical, durable items you’ll get a lot of use out of. Plus, go for clothes that don’t require dry cleaning, which will cost more. Always check a store’s website for an email sign-up bonus, which is usually a percentage off your first purchase.

23. Work while you’re in school. You’ll earn extra money and, depending on the job, you may even get a discount on stuff you’d buy anyway, such as food or clothes. The extra money can also help you reduce the amount of interest you’re paying on student loans and on credit card debt.

24. Skip the credit cards if you can’t pay off your balance. You’ll end up paying more than you need to in interest or even late fees if you can’t make your payments.

25. Don’t be afraid to spend money on the right things. You want to spend as little money as possible in college, but some purchases might be a good investment to save money over time. A good pair of shoes might make walking everywhere easier and can save on public transportation or driving. A bike can can also reduce your cost of gas and other expenses associated with car ownership.

Food and Drink

26. Use your meal plan. If you’re already paying for a meal plan, utilize that before opting for fast food or restaurants.

27. When your meal plan is about to run out — if it doesn’t carry over from week to week or month to month — stock up on items you can easily store, like crackers and trail mix or foods you can freeze.

28. Cut back on drinking alcohol, especially binge drinking and heavy consumption. Not only are you helping your wallet, but your health will benefit as well.

29. Learn to cook to reduce the costs of ordering out or going to a restaurant.

30. Invest in a simple coffee maker instead of paying way more per cup at a coffee shop.

31. Take advantage of free food around campus. Many times you’ll find it at club meetings or at various events.

33. Shop smart. Before heading to the grocery store, check what’s on sale, look for coupons, and sign up for grocery loyalty programs.

34. If you’re going to a restaurant, check its website for coupons, promotions, or incentives for signing up for its email list, such as a percentage off your meal or a free entree.

35. When going out to eat, opt for lunch or happy hour, which will be cheaper than the dinner menu.

36. Find coupons and deals for restaurants on Restaurant.com, Yelp, Groupon, and Living Social.

37. Instead of meeting up at restaurants, hold a pot luck with your friends once a week or month.

38. Stock your dorm pantry. If you’re in the dorms and don’t have access to a stove, stock up on foods that don’t require one: oatmeal, granola bars, trail mix, cereal, sandwiches, salads, and microwavable pastas, rice, and dinners. This way if your meal plan is used up or the cafeteria is closed, you can still eat without ordering out or picking up fast food.

39. Use a slow-cooker. It’s an easy way to prepare a good meal, and it can turn cheaper, tougher cuts of meat into a tender dinner. You can make enough food to have plenty of leftovers, and it will all cook while you’re in class.

Entertainment and Resources

41. Put your Facebook and Twitter accounts to work. Your college might post information on free events or deadlines for scholarship applications. The city or town you’re living in might post information on free things to do. Follow local businesses, like restaurants or grocery stores, for coupons and deals.

42. Ditch cable and watch shows and movies online or in your community room while you’re in the dorms. Sign up for text alerts and e-mail alerts from Redbox for free movies.

43. Opt for low-cost hobbies, like running or reading (just borrow books from the library), or hobbies that can even save you money, like sewing.

44. Read your free college newspaper. Most likely, you’ll find information on free events and things to do along with coupons and discounts at local businesses.

45. Skip the gym membership. Take advantage of fitness classes on campus and join intramural sports.

Transportation and Travel

46. Sell your car or leave it at home if you can. You’ll save on parking permits, gas, maintenance, and a car payment if public transportation is easily accessible or it’s a walkable campus.

47. Walk, ride a bike, or take public transportation whenever possible instead of using your car to save on gas and parking.

48. Carpool whenever possible. If you need to take a cab home from the bars, split the fare with a few friends.

49. If you own a car, don’t become the resident taxi driver. An occasional lift to help a friend is one thing, but constantly driving people to classes or around town is going to increase what you’re spending on gas.

50. Resist the urge to max out your credit card for a pricey spring break trip. Consider cheaper destinations and other ways to save.

Cost of Living

52. When furnishing an apartment or dorm room, use what you have before buying anything new. You’ll have plenty of time for nicer, newer things once you graduate and are earning more money.

53. When in need of furniture, ask family members and friends for any hand-me-downs.

54. Shop secondhand whenever possible, including for furniture and clothes. But whenever you’re buying something used, be sure there are no signs of mold, bugs, or other harmful materials. And always thoroughly sanitize and clean anything once you buy it.

55. Coordinate with your roommates before shopping so you’re not double-buying items or buying something that’s not needed.

56. Know what’s already provided in your dorm or apartment. Some dorm rooms come with a microwave or fridge included in your unit or an ironing board in the laundry facilities. An apartment might already come equipped with a microwave or basic furniture.

57. Know what’s not allowed in your dorm or apartment, so you’re not wasting your money. Candles, toaster ovens, a hot plate for cooking, or certain electronics might not be allowed.

58. Compare rents when you’re apartment hunting. Also factor in what utilities are included. Another cost to consider is how far away from campus it is. If an apartment is cheaper but farther away and would require you to drive to campus or pay for a bus, the higher-priced but closer apartment might be more cost effective.

59. Get good roommates. Split the cost of rent and utilities with roommates, and choose responsible roommates you can trust.

60. Take good care of your apartment so you don’t forfeit your security deposit (i.e., limit those crazy parties).

61. Conserve electricity. Once you start paying your own electricity bill, make sure you unplug devices when not using them, use sunlight whenever you can, and always turn off lights and electronics when not using them.

62. Apply to become a resident advisor to save money on housing. Many schools offer free or discounted lodging and/or a paycheck.

]]>http://www.thesimpledollar.com/63-quick-tips-to-save-money-in-college/feed/0Thrifty Thursday: No Hot Water, No Problemhttp://www.thesimpledollar.com/thrifty-thursday-no-hot-water-no-problem/
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/thrifty-thursday-no-hot-water-no-problem/#commentsThu, 05 Feb 2015 12:00:39 +0000http://www.thesimpledollar.com?p=34603&preview_id=34603Last week, we introduced a new reader-inspired series called Thrifty Thursdays. We want to hear your most ingenious buck-stretching strategies, stories about your famously frugal family and friends, or embarrassing tales of taking thrifty too far. Send your stories to thrifty@thesimpledollar.com, and we may mention you in an upcoming Thrifty Thursday post. Each week, we’ll select our favorite entry, and the winner ...

Send your stories to thrifty@thesimpledollar.com, and we may mention you in an upcoming Thrifty Thursday post. Each week, we’ll select our favorite entry, and the winner will receive a $25 Amazon.com gift card.

This Week’s Winner: The Hot-Water Workout

What does one have to do with the other? Well, Sabine has found a clever way to motivate herself to get to the gym every day — and lower her hot-water bill at the same time. She writes:

“I have a gym membership for $19.99/month. I’m a teacher and stressed out by the end of the day, so there’s now way I’m going to the gym after a long day ‘in the trenches.’ In the morning, it would be so much nicer to stay in bed than drag myself to the gym. So… I switched off the water heater. Only ice-cold water. Always. 24/7.

“If I want to take a shower in the morning (and I HAVE to in order to look presentable), I HAVE to go to the gym. I am too embarrassed to walk in just to shower, so I work out. Every morning at 4:30 a.m. Turns out that my switched-off water heater saves me exactly the monthly gym membership fee, too. Weekends, same thing. I want to shower, I have to go and work out. Want to shower in the evening? Go work out first.”

Honorable Mentions

Sabine’s not the only one tampering with her water heater to save money. Erik says, “When not in use, I like to turn off the breaker to the hot water heater, so you’re not using electricity to heat water when no one is home using it. The catch is, you have to remember to turn the hot water back on a few hours prior to taking a shower. More than once, we have taken a cold shower after forgetting to turn it back on.”

Jimena says her family did the same thing: “We ALWAYS did this in my house growing up, and while it saved a lot of money, there was a LOT of grief over who forgot to turn the breaker off… A couple of years ago I bought a specialized timer and installed it, and the improvement in quality of life is truly amazing.”

Sarah tries to limit her hot water use, too — as well as the electric water pump: “I take Navy showers — wash off, turn off the water, soap, rinse. I’ve realized our water pump consumes a lot of energy, so the savings isn’t just with hot water, but also for the electric pump.” That’s not her only ultra-frugal practice. She adds, “We stopped using a garbage pick-up service, and we’re back to biweekly trips to the dump. It uses a lot of time, and the savings after buying dump coupons is only about $170 a year, but every little bit helps in my tight budget.”

Speaking of the dump, Margaret from North Georgia says she used to make extra money turning one person’s trash into another person’s treasure: “I’m the old gal who, prior to $3 gas, drove all over town on garbage day, and sifted out the big piles for usable goodies. I carried my loot to the flea market on weekends and used the sale money to buy gas and groceries for the next week. Embarrassing? Maybe not: I had a competitor and we often bought each other’s stuff. A coworker’s husband taught me this trick and swore that he sold old Coke bottles for as much as $5 each.”

Commenter AlwaysConservative says: “My brother and I always used to say my mom would squeeze a nickel until the buffalo bled! Although I did learn to be thrifty from her, I always felt she went a little overboard. Aluminum foil was smoothed out and reused. Holiday wrapping paper was carefully folded and even ironed to be used again. No Tupperware for Mom: Cool Whip containers were re-used, as were margarine containers, etc…. But the one I remember most is when someone dropped a cigarette and burned a whole in her carpet, she clipped carpet fibers from an unobtrusive section and glued those fibers onto the burnt spot! I can’t come close to matching that.”

That rang a bell with fellow commenter Cary_W, who says: “I don’t think I ever once got a gift from Grandma that wasn’t wrapped in the Sunday comics! We loved it, though; she lived in another state so the comics were sometimes these weird, mysterious ones that we didn’t get in our local paper. And I have to admit, I’ve wrapped a few gifts for my kids in Sunday comics, too, usually only when we’re out of other wrapping paper.”

Finally, Nikki on Facebook says she tears tissues in half to stretch her supply: “Really bad I know… I tear Kleenexes in half for my little toddler’s nose. Box goes twice as far.” Bonnie uses a similar trick in the laundry room: “I cut my chemical-free fabric softener sheets in half, and it works the same as one sheet in the dryer. Double your money, cut them in half!”

Now It’s Your Turn

Got a great money-saving technique you want to share, or a funny story about ultra-frugal living? What about some thrifty-but-romantic Valentine’s Day gifts or memories? Tell us about it in the comments, through social media using the hashtag #ThriftyThursday, or send an email to thrifty@thesimpledollar.com, for a chance to be included in next week’s post. And remember, one winner each week will receive a $25 Amazon.com gift card!

]]>http://www.thesimpledollar.com/thrifty-thursday-no-hot-water-no-problem/feed/015 Strategies for Saving Money at a Restauranthttp://www.thesimpledollar.com/15-strategies-for-saving-money-at-a-restaurant/
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/15-strategies-for-saving-money-at-a-restaurant/#commentsThu, 29 Jan 2015 14:00:01 +0000http://www.thesimpledollar.com/?p=34350I am a huge advocate for preparing and eating meals at home. It’s almost always drastically cheaper than eating out. You have fine control over the quality and quantity of the ingredients. You can make whatever you want and you’re not restricted by a menu. You don’t have to wait to get seated. Eating at home ...

If you fill up on free appetizers, such as chips and salsa, you can order a smaller entree. Photo: mnchilemom

I am a huge advocate for preparing and eating meals at home. It’s almost always drastically cheaper than eating out. You have fine control over the quality and quantity of the ingredients. You can make whatever you want and you’re not restricted by a menu. You don’t have to wait to get seated. Eating at home just has a ton of benefits.

Still, there are times when eating out at a restaurant just makes more sense. For example, if we choose to spend a day in the Des Moines area, we often wind up more than an hour from home in the evening and, with hungry children, it just makes more sense to eat out. We also usually plan a meal at a restaurant roughly once a month in addition to those relatively unexpected events.

Of course, with our family, that usually means that we’re feeding five people at a restaurant which can add up really quickly if you do it very often. Because of that, we have adopted a whole suite of simple strategies to save money on eating out. Here are 15 things we do to reduce the impact of restaurant dining on our monthly budget.

1. Buy gift cards at retailers that discount them.

A gift card to a restaurant rarely has to be purchased at the face value of the card. If you shop around, you can save 20%, 30%, or even 50% or more on gift cards for a restaurant.

For example, there’s a local pizza restaurant that makes gift cards available online, selling $50 in certificates for $40. When we go to that restaurant, our family usually eats for $30 or $35. So, if we buy two of those bundles, we’ve spent $80 in total and can use those cards to buy $100 worth of food at that restaurant – three visits, in other words. We reduce the cost of an average visit by 20%, saving us about $7 per visit.

Where can you get such gift cards? Restaurant.com is a great place to start. I’ve also had great experiences with Cardpool.com. Another great strategy is to visit a warehouse club – like Sam’s Club or Costco – as they often sell gift card bundles at a nice discount, as much as 25% off the face value.

We just keep these gift cards in our wallet or purse until an opportunity presents itself to eat there.

2. Choose a restaurant with free appetizers, then order a smaller entree.

Many restaurants offer free appetizers as an enticement to get people in the door of their establishments. It’s a good business strategy, mostly because customers often fail to take full advantage of it.

For example, at many Mexican restaurants, they serve a large batch of salsa and chips as a free appetizer before the meal. At Red Lobster, they give you an endless basket of cheddar bay biscuits before the meal. I will often eat those free appetizers and slowly drink a couple of large glasses of water and by the time my main meal arrives, I’m pretty full.

This does require you to be aware that you’ll be a lot less hungry when your meal arrives at the table compared to when you order. Restaurants often know this and that’s why they don’t bring out these appetizers until after you order. That way, you’re sitting there hungry and will often order more than you might want, then after the free appetizers, you aren’t nearly as hungry and could have enjoyed a much smaller meal.

In other words, when you’re ordering your meal at a restaurant with free appetizers, keep those appetizers in mind. You might be really hungry when you order, but after eating a bunch of those appetizers over the next twenty minutes, you likely won’t be as hungry. So, don’t order the giant platter of food — instead stick with a smaller meal that focuses in on just one or two things you really like.

3. Drink water as your beverage.

Restaurants charge a shockingly high price for beverages. A glass of soda will cost you $3 or more. Order a beer or a glass of wine or a mixed drink and you’ll be paying a lot more.

The solution here is to simply request a glass of water as your beverage and skip the other drinks. If you want an after-dinner drink, go to another establishment with more reasonable prices – such as your own home. I’ll often go home and have a bottle of homebrewed beer after a restaurant meal.

Yes, sometimes a meal is made better by accompanying it with a particular beverage. Many dishes pair incredibly well with a glass of wine, for instance. That’s fine, but limit your beverage purchases to what pairs well with the dish and stick to water when the meal isn’t around.

Water also has the feature of keeping the palate clear so that you can actually enjoy all of the flavors of your meal instead of having your taste buds clouded with the sweet aftertastes of soda or the flavors of other beverages brought to your table. I actually prefer that as it makes the food taste better.

4. Check the coupon flyers and other sections in the Sunday newspaper.

Many restaurants – especially chain restaurants – offer coupons for discounts in the Sunday paper, particularly in the coupon flyer section found in the middle of the paper.

Darden Restaurants – owners of Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, and several other restaurants (and until very recently owners of Red Lobster) – frequently use the coupon flyers to distribute coupons for their restaurants, often offering a discount for a pair of entrees. Other chains use the flyers infrequently.

Sometimes, you’ll also find coupons in other sections for more local restaurants. For instance, my wife and I recently found a coupon in a Sunday newspaper for a nearby restaurant that we were completely unaware of before seeing the coupon.

Restaurant coupons are very easy to use. You just include them with your ticket when you send your payment back with the server. They basically function as cash when used at a restaurant – except they’re not really cash out of your pocket.

5. Utilize ‘kids eat free’ nights if you have a family.

Many restaurants that cater to families offer at least one “kids eat free” night during the week. On that night, the restaurant usually offers one children’s meal for free with the purchase of one adult meal. Some places simply don’t charge for any children’s meals on those days, though that’s fairly rare.

For us, if we go out as a family, that means that two children’s meals are free. That can save us $10 or $15 on our ticket at the end of the evening. If you plan most (if not all) of your restaurant meals around this phenomenon, you can end up saving a ton of money.

There’s another big advantage to this for families. With three young children, we are sometimes careful about what restaurants to take our family to because, no matter how perfectly behaved children are, there are times when they’re not so perfectly behaved. Children can have poor emotional control and that can result in tears and outbursts and disruptions of the meals of others. I don’t like that when I go to a non-family restaurant, but when I go to a family restaurant, especially on a “children eat free” night, I assume it will happen a time or two.

Thus, when I’m on the “parent” side of that equation, I don’t feel nearly as apprehensive about going out to eat with my children. (Thankfully, my children are now old enough that this is no longer a significant issue; they’re almost always well-behaved in restaurants now.)

6. Budget for your restaurant dining.

One of the best ways to curb spending on splurges is to simply budget for it. Have a certain amount in your family budget that you set aside for the pleasure of dining out each month. You might set aside enough for two or three meals out at a nice restaurant, which might equate to several meals at a lower-end restaurant.

For us, this directly saves money by putting a cap on our monthly restaurant spending. It also encourages us to sometimes choose less expensive restaurants that we enjoy, such as some of the family-owned Mexican restaurants in the northern part of Des Moines (there are several good ones in the northern suburbs).

Of course, having a family means that we can’t really go to the high-end adult-focused restaurants all that often. The children wouldn’t enjoy or appreciate the experience, so we generally save the nicer restaurants for the occasional date night that Sarah and I share.

We can still splurge on an expensive restaurant, but that means that we’ll probably be missing out on other opportunities to eat out during that month. Budgeting like this gives us the freedom to choose.

7. Pay attention to time-sensitive special deals.

Many restaurants offer specials that are triggered by the specific day of the week and, even more often, the specific time of the day.

Some restaurants offer early bird specials for diners who come in before 5 PM. Other restaurants offer discounted appetizers or drinks at certain times or will offer a “final call” discount on buffet food during the last fifteen minutes of a buffet lunch.

Be aware of these discounts in advance. If you go to a restaurant that you like, take a look at their daily or weekly specials and note the ones that are of particular interest to you, then make sure to go to those restaurants when you’ll get those discounts.

I find it useful to actually note these discounts on my phone. Then, I can look at that calendar when we’re planning on eating out and use it as a helpful guide for picking a restaurant that will be selling us discounted food that night. (I do this for “children eat free” nights, too.)

8. Eat an appetizer as your main dish.

Many restaurants offer absurdly large appetizers at a pretty good price. For instance, one restaurant near us has a bruschetta tray for $6.99 that overloads the pieces of bread with all kinds of toppings, leaving you with more toppings than bread. They’re delicious and plentiful, enough that you could easily fill up on them.

So, why not fill up on them? Order an appetizer as your main course. Usually, you’ll have a fairly small portion for a very good price if you do this and, if you include appetizers in the meals you’re considering, it usually expands your total options.

I find that ordering an appetizer is a great way to enforce portion control and convince myself to eat slower, too. There’s usually more than enough food in an appetizer to fill me up.

Appetizers are often split into smaller portions as well, so if several people choose the “order an appetizer” strategy for their meal, it’s easy to swap part of your appetizer meal for part of theirs, giving you both more variety on your plate.

9. Buy (or split) a local coupon book or discount card.

Many local groups sell discount cards and coupon books that offer a discount at a number of local businesses. Those businesses are usually offering the discount as a way to support a local charity or cause.

If you eat locally and the restaurants you prefer support such a program, these cards and/or coupon books can provide tremendous savings over the course of a year. Our local high school sold discount cards that offered percentage discounts at several different nearby restaurants that, once you used it more than two or three times, saved you money just from the restaurant discounts alone.

If you can’t afford the price – and sometimes the bigger coupon books can be expensive – split the cost with a friend and take turns selecting coupons from the book. For instance, if you buy a book with 100 coupons for $50 and split the cost with a friend, you can each spend $25 and then take turns picking coupons out of the book so that you each get half of the coupons.

10. Split an entree with another person in your party.

Many restaurants serve huge meals with enormous sides – far more than a single person could or should eat. One of our favorite local restaurants serves such a ludicrous amount of sides that I have never been able to finish a full meal there.

One great strategy at a “big portion” restaurant is to simply split an entree with a friend or loved one. Simply order a meal you both like, request an extra plate, then divide up the meal among the two of you when it arrives.

This allows you to eat a more reasonably-sized meal while cutting the cost of the meal in half. I’ve split meals with my wife many times.

Another strategy is to order a single entree and a cheaper appetizer, splitting the appetizer then splitting the entree. The cost reduction isn’t quite as much, but it can still save you $10 or so.

11. Skip dessert and satisfy your sweet tooth at home.

Restaurants love to serve you an overpriced dessert at the end of the meal and for people with a sweet tooth it can be really tempting. It’s a good strategy to skip that dessert, however, and pick it up elsewhere.

If you’re eating a dessert at home, it’s going to be far cheaper because you purchased the ingredients yourself at a grocery store. Rather than eating a bowl of ice cream at a restaurant, our family will often go home and make anyone who wants dessert a small bowl out of the ice cream container we already bought at the store, which drives the cost per bowl well below $1 and usually far, far cheaper than what the restaurant charges.

You also have much more control over what you have for dessert because, again, you’ll get to select what you have from the wide array of items on sale at your local grocer that you already purchased and have at home.

If you really want to eat a dessert at a restaurant, simply choose to stop at a restaurant that focuses on dessert offerings. You’ll usually not pay much more and the dessert quality and variety is much higher.

Many restaurants utilize social media to talk directly to their biggest fans and customers. Restaurants will often pass along special discounts in order to encourage even more repeat business.

Thanks to social media, I’ve been able to enjoy several “buy one, get one free” options on entrees at various restaurants in the area – some of them chains and some of them strictly local. I’ve enjoyed free appetizers and even free meals a couple of times.

All you have to do is have an account at the most popular social sites – Facebook and Twitter – and then look up the names of restaurants you enjoy and either “follow” or “like” them. When you’re thinking of eating out, check out what those restaurants have posted recently. You might just have a great bargain sitting there waiting for you.

Similarly, you can sign up for mailing lists at restaurants. Often, they’ll have a drawing for free meals from their mailing list and they’ll usually use it to send out coupons and discounts. I recommend having a separate email address for emails from these lists. That way, you can just check that email account before you dine and search your email backlog for discounts.

13. Don’t assume the ‘special’ is a discounted meal.

Many restaurants offer daily “specials” that they write on a chalkboard or some other form of posting near the front of the restaurant. These are often experimental meals that they’re trying out or else meals designed to use some sort of food excess in the kitchen.

In either case, people often believe that these “specials” are available at a discounted price, but that’s often not true at all. They’re often priced on par with other items or sometimes even a bit higher.

If you’re considering ordering the posted special, ask for the price of the special first and take that into account while ordering. Compare that price quickly to other items on the menu and see how the special really stacks up. Often, you’re better off ordering something else from the menu.

14. Exercise portion control at the table.

When you’re served a big plate of food, you’ll almost always find yourself starting to feel full, but you also have this big half-finished plate still in front of you. It’s very tempting to keep nibbling away at it, but this is the key time to establish some portion control.

Stop eating. Put a napkin over your plate to block the temptation. As soon as you see your server, request a container to take your leftovers home in and load them up.

This saves money by ensuring more leftovers for you, making it possible to eat a full meal or maybe even two from your leftovers when you might have otherwise been lucky to eat just one. It also helps with your health, because jamming more calories into your system is never a good option when you’re already full.

15. Make eating out ‘special’ and eat ‘ordinary’ the rest of the time.

For us, eating out is a treat. It’s something to enjoy that’s usually much more enjoyable than the “normal” meals that we eat at home. It becomes an experience, not an ordinary routine.

That’s not to say we don’t cook good meals at home – we do. However, they’re often simple fare – a simple pasta with sauce, homemade tacos, chili, and the like. We stick with simple, easy to prepare meals that we know our family will like. Those meals are really inexpensive.

This keeps our food budget nice and low so that when we do go out, it’s both a special treat and not a budget killer.

Here’s the truth: a few smart steps while eating at a restaurant can drastically reduce the expense. Not all of the tactics in this article will work for your situation, but some of them will, and if you can stack them together, you can drastically reduce the cost of dining out.

]]>http://www.thesimpledollar.com/15-strategies-for-saving-money-at-a-restaurant/feed/0Introducing Thrifty Thursdayshttp://www.thesimpledollar.com/introducing-thrifty-thursdays-at-the-simple-dollar/
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/introducing-thrifty-thursdays-at-the-simple-dollar/#commentsThu, 29 Jan 2015 12:00:00 +0000http://www.thesimpledollar.com?p=33814&preview_id=33814One of my favorite things about The Simple Dollar is all of the tips, tricks, hacks, and analysis Trent has written over the years on how to save a buck. From how to make your own beer or pizza dough to how to make your own soap or laundry detergent, each of these nuggets of wisdom offers us ...

While the pursuit of financial independence is a serious subject, it doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun. When I read Trent’s detailed economic analysis of turning off your lights, I found myself laughing out loud. It reminded me how comical we can all be in the pursuit of expanding the gap between what we earn and what we spend.

So, in that spirit, I would like to kick off a competition of sorts. I invite you, our readers, to submit the most amusing, funny, or outrageous ways you or someone you know exemplifies “thriftiness.”

Have you or a friend ever done something to save a buck that you’re a little embarrassed by? Ridiculed by family members for? Or exceptionally proud of? Send your penny-pinching highlights to thrifty@thesimpledollar.com. We’ll feature a few of your stories each Thursday in our new “Thrifty Thursday” series, and we can all share a good laugh — and maybe learn a couple of new tips, too.

Today, I’d like to kick it off with some stories about one of my heroes — my dad.

You Might Be Thrifty If . . .

As the second oldest of 11 kids growing up in a rural town, my dad will gladly tell you that he grew up during the Great Depression. Of course, he was born in the 1950s — about two decades after the start of the Great Depression. But even though he has no physical connection to that time period, the Dust Bowl mindset persists, and from it comes a few of the thriftiest habits I’ve ever seen.

My Dad’s Top Five Thrifty Habits

No. 1: When he goes shopping, he doesn’t consider something a great deal unless the store pays him. He has actually achieved this goal on more than one occasion, by returning items or writing letters and then getting the item fully replaced or refunded — along with an extra gift card for his time and trouble.

No. 2: He has been known to haggle with Home Depot store managers for days to get them to match a price on a drill — a $5 difference, I might add. I have pointed out that his time is worth more than the $5 difference. However, he rather enjoys the game of getting the absolute best price every time.

No. 3: He regularly drives more than 10 miles out of his way to save two cents per gallon on gas. Again, I’ve used the “your time is worth more than you’re saving” argument (not to mention the gas used getting there), but to no avail.

No. 4: I’ve witnessed him go to McDonald’s before a long car ride, then stop a few hours later and hand the drive-thru attendant his empty soda cup and ask for a free refill. He’s apparently not embarrassed by this, even if family members are.

No. 5: (This one is actually genius, I think.) Over the course of my brother’s college education, he put all of the tuition bills on his Cabela’s credit card (and paid it off right away each time), so he could earn as many free points as he could. He was able to buy thousands of dollars worth of hunting and fishing merchandise for free.

That’s my dad in a nutshell. He has truly shown me how to relish in the art of the deal. He genuinely loves doing this, and has the self-awareness to laugh about his habits — especially No. 4! He personifies simplicity and frugalness, even if he takes it to a bit of an extreme.

Now it’s your turn. Tell us what you think of my dad’s thrifty habits – do you do any of these yourself? And remember to email us at thrifty@thesimpledollar.com with your thriftiest behaviors or stories, for a chance to have them featured in our next Thrifty Thursday column.

]]>http://www.thesimpledollar.com/introducing-thrifty-thursdays-at-the-simple-dollar/feed/0Why Your Budget Needs a Bufferhttp://www.thesimpledollar.com/why-your-budget-needs-a-buffer/
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/why-your-budget-needs-a-buffer/#commentsFri, 23 Jan 2015 17:00:02 +0000http://www.thesimpledollar.com?p=33012&preview_id=33012When my husband and I discovered zero-sum budgeting several years ago, we knew we were onto something. Because of the way zero-sum budgeting works, it required us to account for every dollar we made on paper – to give each dollar a job. For us, that meant scrutinizing every cent of our spending and figuring ...

Including a buffer in your budget will help cover unforeseen expenses, such as car repairs. Photo: Craig Tire

When my husband and I discovered zero-sum budgeting several years ago, we knew we were onto something. Because of the way zero-sum budgeting works, it required us to account for every dollar we made on paper – to give each dollar a job. For us, that meant scrutinizing every cent of our spending and figuring out how to make the most of our hard-earned dollars. And once we started, we were instantly hooked.

Of course, learning to use a budget for the first time wasn’t always easy. Facing our own spending on paper – in black and white – was sometimes painful. However, we quickly learned to enjoy the process and relish the small victories of budgeting.

But we had a problem. Since we vowed to take the budgeting process seriously, our first few zero-sum budgets were almost militant — down to the penny with almost zero room for error. And, despite the fact that we were driven to stick to our plan, our lack of a buffer meant that we were constantly coming up short at the end of the month.

Eventually, we learned we needed a little wiggle room in our monthly budget and settled on a $200 miscellaneous category that could be used for any additional expenses. In the end, the buffer served us well by absorbing any budget overages and by helping us feel we had more control.

Budgeting Isn’t Always Easy

Although the percentage was slightly higher among those with a college education, a conservative ideology, or household earnings of $75,000 or more per year, a Gallup poll from mid-2013 shows that only about a third of American households created and used a household budget that year.

No matter how much money you make and how educated you are, budgeting can be tough. It takes much more than a pen and paper; it takes self-reliance, self-restraint, and fortitude to create a budget, let alone stick with it.

It’s hard to tell yourself no when you really want something, and it can be downright stressful to live within limits for the first time. And when you’re used to buying whatever you want, a budget can feel like an enemy, especially when things aren’t going your way.

Here’s Why Your Budget Needs a Buffer

But budgeting becomes much easier when you set yourself up for success. And part of the budgeting process means learning how to plan for reality, not just how you wish things would be. In other words, your budget needs a buffer – a few hundred dollars of padding that can help you stay on track. Here’s why:

To account for overages: When you’re budgeting one month in advance, you generally need to estimate your bills for the month. That may be easy to do with fixed bills like your mortgage and cellphone bill, but it can be much more difficult when it comes to bills that fluctuate – like your electric, gas, or even water bills. When you leave some room for error in your budget, or set aside a certain amount for miscellaneous charges, you no longer have to worry if you underestimate an essential bill.

Because it’s easy to forget: Remembering your regular monthly bills is a piece of cake, but what about everything else? I’m awful at remembering to budget for my niece’s or nephew’s birthdays, for anniversaries, and for oil changes for my car. It’s easy to forget bills that are infrequent, or that you don’t expect. But when your budget has a buffer, you’re covered.

Because life happens: Even when you prepare for everything, life has a way of derailing your plans and costing more than you expect. One month, you may need surprise home repairs. And another, you might discover your child has completely outgrown their shoes. Whatever the emergency, it isn’t always possible to wait until next month, and sometimes you have to fork over the money right away. Your miscellaneous category can help you absorb these costs and stay on track.

Because you want to succeed: The best part about setting aside a certain dollar figure as a budget buffer is the psychological boost you get from succeeding. When your budget doesn’t have a buffer, you’re always transferring money to your account to cover emergencies or overages, but when those inevitabilities are part of your plan, you get to feel like a success. That feeling makes it easier to stick with your plan and continue budgeting each and every month.

A budget is simply a plan you create to get the most out of the money you work so hard to make. And if you don’t have a plan, why are you working so hard in the first place?

Life isn’t always predictable and things can and do come up. If you want your budget to be an overwhelming success, it’s important to set aside some miscellaneous funds that can help keep your budget on track. Your kids will need money for school. Your car will need a tune-up. Your furnace will require an emergency repair.

All of these reasons, and others, make it easy to see your budget needs a buffer. Budget for reality, and not just for how you wish things would be.

]]>http://www.thesimpledollar.com/why-your-budget-needs-a-buffer/feed/0The Big Impact of Your Little Financial Choiceshttp://www.thesimpledollar.com/the-big-impact-of-your-little-financial-choices/
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/the-big-impact-of-your-little-financial-choices/#commentsThu, 22 Jan 2015 14:00:21 +0000http://www.thesimpledollar.com/?p=33933When a person starts looking at their personal finances and seeking to make changes to improve things, most personal finance books and websites encourage people to look at making big changes right off the bat. Sell off all the stuff in your closet to earn a big pile of money in a weekend. Sell your ...

Selling your car or downsizing your home will certainly save you money. But smaller moves, such as meal planning, can be effective over time, too. Photo: Liz

When a person starts looking at their personal finances and seeking to make changes to improve things, most personal finance books and websites encourage people to look at making big changes right off the bat.

Sell off all the stuff in your closet to earn a big pile of money in a weekend.

Sell your car and start using mass transit and a bicycle to save hundreds a month.

Move to a smaller home or apartment and trim your insurance, rent, mortgage payments, property taxes, energy bills, and maintenance costs all at once.

All of those big ticket items are great, but they only provide part of what’s possible. There are many, many smaller moves that also have a lasting impact on your finances that are often overlooked by people hoping to catch the big savings with one single move.

I thought it might be worthwhile to talk about the long-term impact of several of our little financial choices in terms of the broad picture of our lives. How much impact do little things like smarter grocery shopping or buying energy efficient light bulbs or buying generics or inflating tires really make? Here’s how much impact some of these common frugal tactics have actually saved us over the last few years.

Trying ‘Smart’ Grocery Shopping

For Sarah and myself, the weekly (or, sometimes, every other week) routine of downloading a grocery store flyer, assembling a meal plan, making a grocery list, and heading to the store is simply the way we do things. It ends up taking about the same amount of time as just heading to the store directly without any plan in mind and it saves us about $30 per grocery store visit. You can read about our family’s meal planning strategy in great detail if you’re interested.

That’s $30 a week. For some people, that may seem like a lot; for others, that seems pretty small next to saving hundreds a month by moving to a smaller home.

Yet, over time, it adds up to a lot. Sarah and I have been using this system since late 2006 or so, so let’s figure that it’s eight years. Let’s also assume that we go to the store fifty times in a year – as I said, it’s roughly weekly. Fifty times per year times eight years is 400 grocery store visits. Saving $30 per grocery store visit times 400 visits (over eight years) is, get this, $12,000.

That’s right. Our meal planning system, which doesn’t require us to burn any more time than we would just running into the store, has saved us $12,000 during our financial turnaround.

Practicing Proper Tire Inflation

Many gas stations offer a free compressed air pump that people can use to inflate their tires to the recommended amount. This amount is listed in your car’s manual and is usually measured in PSI. If you keep a $1 gauge in your glove compartment, you can quickly measure the pressure in each car tire and then use the free air pump to inflate the tire properly. Why would you do this? Well, when your tires are deflated even a little, it hits your gas mileage. For every missing PSI from any of your four tires, you lose 1/8% of your gas mileage.

I fill the tires on our automobiles monthly. Each time, I find each tire is about 4 PSI low, almost like clockwork. So, when I refill them, I’m improving the fuel efficiency by about 2%. In the past, I would just let the repair shop do the refilling every three months when I would take my car in for maintenance, so essentially I’m trading about three minutes once a month to improve a car’s fuel efficiency by about 2%.

Our SUV averages about 18 miles per gallon under proper inflation, which means that without proper inflation, it would average 17.6 miles per gallon. My wife’s commuter car gets about 42 miles per gallon under proper inflation, which means that without proper inflation, it would average about 41 miles per gallon.

In an average year, the SUV gets about 10,000 miles on it. My wife’s car gets about 20,000 miles on it per year.

Thus, in an average year, proper tire inflation saves us about 13 gallons of gas on the SUV and 5.8 gallons in the commuter car. We’ve owned the SUV for about six years, so that adds up to 78 gallons. We’ve owned the commuter car for five years, so that adds up to 29 gallons. That’s a total of 107 gallons of gas saved in that timeframe.

Assuming gas is at an average of $3 per gallon – which is pretty close to the average over the lifetime of our cars, that’s $321 in gas savings due to proper inflation.

Obviously, time is a factor here. I spent three minutes inflating the tires eight times a year (the other four times would happen during car maintenance at a repair shop), so it’s 24 minutes per car per year. We’ve had the SUV for six years and the commuter car for five years, so that adds up to 4.4 hours spent airing up the tires spread across those years. Now, some (I’d even say most) of those air refills happened when we were stopped at a gas station to refuel and a child had to use the bathroom so I had a few minutes to kill, so at least some of the 4.4 hours would have been just idle time had I not been topping off the air. Still, we saved $73 per hour of my time spent inflating car tires.

That seems worth it to me.

Buying Generics

In an average grocery store visit, I put somewhere around ten generic items in my cart. I’ll buy things like store brand ketchup, store brand tomato sauce, store brand hand soap, and so on. I don’t buy generics of items that don’t work well for my family – I only buy generics that are either identical to the name brands or make no difference. For example, I don’t buy generic trash bags as I’ve had some bad experiences with them.

Let’s say that, on average, I save a quarter per generic item compared to buying the name brand. This is probably a low average, actually, but we’ll use it.

As I mentioned above, we shop fifty times a year and we started being careful with our money eight years ago, adding up to 400 visits. Let’s say we buy ten generic items per visit – only generics that have no impact on our life quality – and those save $0.50 each, adding up to $5 per visit.

We’ve saved $2,000 over the past eight years buying generic versions of items. Again, these items have no impact on our quality of life compared to the name brands – we just buy generics of items that are pretty much equal to the name brand for our purposes.

In other words, we’ve saved $2,000 to have somewhat less pretty labels on some of our household and food items.

Installing LED Light Bulbs

In 2011, I gradually started shifting the lights in our home away from incandescent bulbs (after a bit of experimentation with CFLs that I never really found to be all that good). At that point, LED bulbs were good enough for secondary lighting, but by 2012 or so, I found them to be good enough for most lighting purposes and, now, I basically wouldn’t use anything else.

So, why LED bulbs? What’s the reason for using them? For starters, they’re far more energy efficient than normal incandescent bulbs. A normal incandescent bulb that uses 60 watts is replaced by a LED bulb that produces roughly the same amount of light while eating only 13 watts of energy. They also have a longer lifespan – I have yet to replace a LED bulb in my home, even though some of them have been in use for four years now. They’re estimated to have a life span of 20,000 hours, compared to the 1,000 hour life span of an incandescent bulb.

What’s the drawback? They’re expensive up front. I can consistently get LED bulbs in the $8 range right now, and that’s substantially lower than they were even a few years ago. Compare that to a price of $1 for an incandescent bulb and you can easily see the problem.

Yet, it turns out that the LED bulbs save a ton of money. I have, on last count, 43 lightbulb sockets in my home. We’ll assume that they all take 60 watt bulbs (some take more, some take less). Let’s also assume that I use each bulb for an average of 4 hours a day (again, some bulbs I use more, some less). This means that the bulbs in their sockets should last thirteen years, the lifespan equivalent of 20 incandescent bulbs.

Over the course of 20,000 hours, a LED bulb, using energy at a rate of 13 watts per hour, will consume 260,000 watts, or 260 kilowatts. An incandescent bulb, using energy at a rate of 60 watts per hour, will use 1,200,000 watts, or 1,200 kilowatts.

Let’s assume that, on average, energy costs $0.12 per kilowatt hour from my energy company. That means, over that 20,000 hour period, that the LED bulb will cost me $31.20 in energy, while the incandescent bulb will cost me $144.

Also, for every single LED bulb I buy at $8, I would have to buy 20 incandescent bulbs at $1 each for a total of $20.

The total cost of LED lighting over 20,000 hours? $39.20. The total cost of incandescent lighting over 20,000 hours? $164. That’s a savings of $124.80 per bulb.

Thus, over the thirteen year period that it takes for us to wear out an LED light, over the 43 sockets in our home, LED lighting will save our family $5,366.40.

That’s a lot of savings.

Buying Nonperishable Goods in Bulk

Virtually every home you go into has a bunch of nonperishable goods in the cupboards and closets, from cleaning supplies to dry foods. It’s easy to pick these items up at the local grocery store, but it doesn’t take a genius to notice that the “jumbo packs” almost always cost more than the smaller packs… but they actually cost less per item in those packs.

Let me give you an example. The particular brand of bath tissue that my family prefers costs $2.99 for a four-pack at the local grocery store, but if we buy it at our nearest warehouse club, we can buy it in a 36 pack for $20.48. At the local store, the cost per roll is $0.75, but at the warehouse club it’s $0.57 per roll.

Eighteen cents? What’s the big deal? Well, let’s then assume that we go through two rolls per week at our house, which adds up to 104 rolls per year. That’s $18.72 in annual savings just from buying bath tissue in bulk. We’re buying the exact same brand and the exact same size of bath tissue we’ve always purchased, but we’re just saving a bit less than $20 per year by buying it in bulk.

Let’s say that I save $20 a year on each of those items – we won’t even name any more. I’m pretty sure we save more on some items and less on others, but we’ll go with the average here (and I’m not including many other things we buy in bulk, like salt). That’s fifteen items, so that’s $300 a year.

We’ve been warehouse club shoppers for about eight years, so that adds up to $2,400 in savings.

What about the cost of the membership, you ask? Since our local warehouse club gives us a $0.10 per gallon discount on gas, we gas up there most of the time and that alone ends up paying for the membership. The other savings is just icing on the cake.

Cooking Ahead One Day a Month

I like making meals in advance for one simple reason: it saves time. Never mind the money, it’s the time savings that really makes this strategy worthwhile for me. When I make a meal in advance on a lazy Saturday, for example, it enables me to grab a homemade meal out of the freezer late on a Monday evening, go through a crazy busy Tuesday, and be able to put it in the oven or the slow cooker and still have a home-cooked meal on the table for my family during that twenty minutes we all have together during a very jam-packed evening. So, basically, I’m borrowing hours from a not-busy day and giving them to a busy day, but it’s even better than that – it takes less time to prepare four pans of lasagna at the same time than to prepare each one individually from scratch on different evenings.

Here’s the kicker – it saves money, too! I can take advantage of bulk buying when I make meals in advance because I’m making four meals at the exact same time.

Let’s say, for example, that I’m making that pan of lasagna in bulk one Saturday afternoon, which enables me to make four pans at once. Instead of buying the pasta sauce in individual jars at the grocery store, I can buy a jumbo pack of three or four jars at the warehouse club, saving $2 across all of the pans. I can buy a jumbo pack of lasagna noodles, saving $1 across all of the pans. I can buy a large block of mozzarella cheese, saving $3 instead of buying the smaller amounts. I can do the same with cottage cheese (my family’s substitute for ricotta, since a few people don’t like ricotta), saving $2 across all of the pans.

That’s a savings of $8 across four pans, or $2 per meal.

Let’s assume that’s an average savings for every “make ahead” meal that we prepare. Let’s also assume that once a month I manage to devote a Saturday to making two different sets of “make-ahead” meals. That’s eight meals, times twelve months in a year, giving us 96 meals in a year. Over the course of eight years since our financial turnaround, that all adds up to $1,500 saved because I made meals in advance.

That $1,500 in savings is pure icing on the cake. As I said at the top, the real reason I make meals in advance is that it saves time on busy days and actually takes less overall time than preparing the meals individually.

‘Shopping’ for Books and Movies at the Library

Sarah and I are voracious readers, finishing several books a month between us. Our family also has a family movie night where we all gather together and enjoy a family-friendly film.

In the past, I used to buy a lot of books and a lot of movies. These days, I don’t buy nearly as many, and the biggest reason is that I started “shopping” for movies and books at the library.

Instead of going to the store (or to a website) to buy books or movies, I just stop in at one of two different local libraries about once every other week. I browse through their new releases in the book section, trawl through some of the book areas where I often find things I like to read, and also dig through the movies.

This doesn’t eliminate my movie and book purchases, but it does reduce it a little bit.

Let’s say that because of this browsing, I buy one fewer $10 book per month. Let’s also say that I rent one fewer film a month from Redbox, saving me $1.50, and I also buy one fewer movie a year, saving me another $10. I still buy books and I still occasionally buy movies – the only change is that some of my movie and book consumption is now supported by free borrowing at the local library.

That simple change saves me $148 per year. Honestly, it probably saves me more than that, but we’ll use this as a really conservative estimate. Over the course of the last eight years since I became an active library patron, the library has saved me at least $1,100.

I don’t skip out on buying books in any way, but it’s easier to skip out on buying one if I have it in my hands from my local library. I still buy some books – especially ones I plan on rereading – but library browsing does nothing but save me money without denting my reading habits in any way.

It’s Not Really So Little

Here’s the thing: these big savings are actually disguised cleverly in your budget. Each month, each technique will save you a relatively small amount of cash. Together, all of these techniques save us only a few hundred dollars per month.

The value in these little techniques is that they’re so easily repeatable. They aren’t usually just a one-time thing. Instead, they’re simply a better way of doing something in your life. These new routines easily replace old ones, and those new routines cause your expenses to drop.

At first, you won’t notice a huge change. After a month or two, you might notice that you’re not stopping for gas quite as often or that your grocery bills and energy bills are smaller. You might find that there are a few more dollars left in your checking account at the end of the month, and that makes it possible to make an extra payment on one of your debts or start building up an emergency fund.

However, this change keeps going. And going. And going. It can provide the resources you need to slowly step away from paycheck to paycheck living. It can provide what you need to save up for a house down payment. It can provide a car payment, as long as you’re riding a late model used car and aren’t demanding a brand new expensive vehicle. It can help you save for travel or for education or for almost anything else you could imagine.

It doesn’t create a miserable, deprived life, either. I can’t imagine any of these changes bringing about any sort of real unhappiness in a person’s life.

Although many people look at these savings as “little,” I don’t see them as little at all. For the minimal life impact that they have, they can turn into a tremendous positive life impact. Almost every one of these changes has saved me at least $1,000 since I started The Simple Dollar; the only change that doesn’t qualify has saved me $73 per hour of time invested in it.

It’s a little lifestyle change, but over time, the impact can be really big!

]]>http://www.thesimpledollar.com/the-big-impact-of-your-little-financial-choices/feed/0Our Family’s Seven Favorite Make-Ahead Mealshttp://www.thesimpledollar.com/our-familys-seven-favorite-make-ahead-meals/
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/our-familys-seven-favorite-make-ahead-meals/#commentsSat, 17 Jan 2015 14:00:30 +0000http://www.thesimpledollar.com/?p=33748One of our favorite frugal routines around here is the “make ahead meal.” It often fills our Saturday afternoons. A make ahead meal is a simple concept, really – you just prepare most of a meal in advance, freeze it just prior to the point where you would put it in the oven, and then ...

]]>One of our favorite frugal routines around here is the “make ahead meal.” It often fills our Saturday afternoons.

A make ahead meal is a simple concept, really – you just prepare most of a meal in advance, freeze it just prior to the point where you would put it in the oven, and then pull it out at a later point to thaw it and then finish cooking it.

There are a number of big advantages to doing things this way.

One, it reduces the meal prep time on busy evenings. A make ahead meal usually means that when you get home, you preheat the oven, pull something out of the refrigerator, put it straight into the oven, and wait for 45 minutes or so for a homecooked meal.

Two, it reduces the advance prep time as well by synergizing multiple meal preparation. If you prepare four casseroles at once, it takes less time than it does to prepare them one at a time as you can just do more tasks simultaneously, such as cooking noodles or steaming vegetables or even chopping and peeling vegetables.

Three, it allows you to buy in bulk. If you’re making, say, four meals at once, you can buy large bulk sizes of many of the ingredients of that meal. This saves you money overall because the cost per meal is lower.

Four, it’s far cheaper than takeout or eating out. Making meals at home is cheaper than eating out in almost every instance. It’s far cheaper than eating out at a good place.

Finally, it gives you a lot more freedom and control over the meals you eat. I fully understand what it’s like to be part of a really busy family that’s limited on what they can prepare in an evening. Having an array of home-cooked meals in the freezer that I can pull out, whether for breakfast or lunch or dinner, makes it a lot easier. I know what’s in these meals – I prepared them myself and I’m not relying on the medley of mystery ingredients that one might find in a store-bought meal.

Here are some of our family’s favorite make-ahead recipes.

Clam Chowder

Soups make for an amazing make-ahead meal. All you have to do is store some soup in a gallon Ziploc freezer bag, thaw it in the refrigerator, and then heat it up in about fifteen minutes on the stovetop or five minutes in the microwave. Here’s one of our favorite non-vegetarian soups.

1. Combine the wine and water in a large pot. If the clams are still shelled, add them to the pot and raise to a boil for several minutes until the clams begin to open. Take out the clams, open them up, and remove the clam meat from each one. Strain the liquid and save that liquid for later. Chop the clam meat into small pieces. Meanwhile, boil the potatoes in plain water for about eight minutes, then drain and set the potatoes aside.

2. In the now-empty large pot, add the bacon to the pot and cook it over medium-high heat about seven minutes. Then, add the onions, celery, and bay leaves and cook for another seven minutes. Add the flour, stir like crazy, then slowly add the milk (while stirring) and then slowly add the cream (while stirring). Add the wine-water-clam juice to the mix very slowly, making sure not to add any of the sand and clamshell grit that’s at the bottom of that liquid. Cook for about fifteen minutes, then add the potatoes and clams and remove the bay leaves.

3. At this point, the soup is finished. Store it in gallon Ziploc freezer bags in the freezer. You’ll have several bags, depending on how full they are.

4. To finish cooking, pull a bag of soup out of the freezer and place it in the refrigerator for 24 hours, then heat it over medium heat on the stove top when you’re ready to eat it.

Breakfast Burritos

These are a very easy way to make a hot breakfast full of good stuff for the kids – and for myself.

1. Preheat a large skillet or small pot over medium-high heat with a few drops of vegetable oil, then add potatoes, onion, and green pepper. Cook these items for eight minutes, tossing regularly.

2. Add eggs and continue to stir them regularly until the eggs are just barely firm. You want them slightly on the “less done” side rather than overcooked.

3. Remove mixture from heat. Add a couple heaping tablespoons of the mix to the center of a tortilla. Add a pinch of shredded cheese and salsa to each one, then wrap it like a burrito. Cover it with wax paper, tape the paper closed, then cover that with aluminum foil. Store in the freezer.

4. To finish cooking, remove a burrito from the freezer. Take off the aluminum foil and wax paper and put the burrito on a microwave safe plate. Microwave for one minute on high, turn the burrito over, then microwave for another minute (for a high-energy microwave) or two (for a low-energy microwave).

5. Optional If you want a sausage burrito, fry a pound of sausage first and mix it into the egg mixture while cooking. If you want a bacon burrito, fry a pound of bacon until crispy, crumble it, and add it into the egg mixture near the end of cooking.

Three Bean Chili

This soup is flat-out better after freezing and re-heating. The ingredients and flavors undergo a subtle transformation that just makes it amazing.

0. If you’re using dry beans, let them soak overnight. The next morning, pour off the water, add new water, then bring the water to a boil. When it’s boiling, remove it from heat and let it sit for an hour or two in the naturally cooling water.

1. Put the vegetable oil in a large skillet or small pot over medium-high heat and coat the surface with it. Add the onions, bell peppers, and garlic and cook until the onions are translucent, then remove the vegetables from the pan and set aside. Put half of the liquid into the hot skillet and then remove from heat.

2. Put all beans, all liquid, the tomatoes, the cooked beans, and the chili powder and cumin in a large pot over medium-high heat. Stir regularly until simmering, then lower heat until it’s just barely simmering. Let it simmer for 20-30 minutes. Add salt and hot pepper to taste at this point, stirring it in.

3. At this point, the chili is finished. Store it in gallon Ziploc freezer bags in the freezer. You’ll have several bags, depending on how full they are.

4. To finish cooking, pull a bag of chili out of the freezer and place it in the refrigerator for 24 hours, then heat it over medium heat on the stove top when you’re ready to eat it.

Note If you don’t have a lid for your baking dish, you can just thoroughly cover it with a layer of plastic wrap followed by a layer of aluminum foil. It will keep well in the freezer for up to three months.

Instructions

1. In a large skillet, cook the ground beef and sausage together until well-cooked, drain, then separate it into two equal amounts.

2. To each batch of meat, add a jar of pizza sauce and a jar of marinara sauce.

3. In another bowl, mix 16 ounces of ricotta or cottage cheese, 1/2 cup of the Parmesan cheese, two eggs, and a dash or two of ground black pepper to taste.

4. In a greased 9″ by 13″ pan, you’re going to make several layers. Do them in this order: one cup of the meat sauce, four noodles, half of the cheese mixture, one cup of meat sauce, two cups of mozzarella, one cup of meat sauce, four noodles, the other half of the cheese mixture, another cup of meat sauce, and then two cups of mozzarella.

5. To make a second pan, repeat steps 1 through 4 with the remaining ingredients. Put a lid on both baking dishes and store them in the freezer.

6. To finish cooking remove from the freezer 24 hours before cooking and leave in the refrigerator. As soon as you get home, pull the lasagna from the refrigerator and set it on the countertop and preheat the oven to 375 F. Cover the lasagna with aluminum foil and bake for 45 minutes, then remove the cover and bake for 15 more minutes. Let stand for ten minutes on the table before serving so that the layers firm up – without that period, it will be very “runny.”

Shrimp and Rice Casserole

My children go absolutely ga-ga for shrimp, so this really makes them happy!

1. Bring two cups of water to a boil, add the rice, cover, and let it simmer for twenty minutes until water is absorbed.

2. Melt butter over medium-high heat in a small pot, then add shrimp and vegetables. Stir regularly for five minutes until the shrimp begins to turn pink, then add remaining ingredients and stir everything together.

3. Put the mixture into 8″ by 8″ or 9″ by 13″ baking pans. Cover them with a lid or with a layer of plastic wrap and then aluminum foil.

4. To finish cooking, allow the casserole to thaw in the refrigerator for 24 hours prior to cooking. Heat the oven to 400 F, then bake for 30 minutes until the cheese is melted.

Vegetarian Lasagna

This is our family’s favorite kind of lasagna. We eat a mostly vegetarian diet these days, so this lasagna is a real home run. We rely on frozen vegetables a lot in this recipe.

Note As above, if you don’t have a lid for your baking dish, you can just thoroughly cover it with a layer of plastic wrap followed by a layer of aluminum foil. It will keep well in the freezer for up to three months.

Instructions

1. In a small pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat; after a minute or so, ad the flour and garlic and stir vigorously for two minutes. Add the milk and whisk thoroughly until the garlic and flour are distributed. This will slightly thicken the milk.

2. Keep the heat going until it’s boiling, then lower the heat to a very low simmer. Keep whisking for five minutes until the milk gets significantly thicker, then add all of the vegetables and cook for a minute more, then set this all aside. This will be your “veggie mix.”

3. In a large bowl, combine the ricotta or cottage cheese, eggs, and a healthy dash of salt and pepper. This will be your “cheese mix.”

4. Simultaneously grease two 9″ by 13″ baking dishes. In each one, spread a thin layer of the “veggie mix,” then a layer of noodles, then another thin layer of the veggie mix, then another layer of noodles, then a quarter of the cheese mix (in each), then a quarter of the mozzarella (in each), then a quarter of the Parmesan (in each). Repeat all of the layers (in each). You’ll end up with two pans full of lasagna!

To finish cooking, remove the dish from the freezer 24 hours early and store in the refrigerator. When you’re ready to cook, preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, remove the plastic wrap, and cover the top with aluminum foil. Bake for an hour, then remove the plastic wrap and bake for another 15 to 20 minutes until the cheese has just begun to brown. When you pull it out of the oven, let it rest for ten minutes or so.

1. Before you do anything, note the cooking time on the barley that you have. That’s how long you’re going to want to cook the soup, except you’re going to want to subtract 25% of that cooking time – fifteen minutes from every hour. Note that time.

2. Add the oil to a skillet and coat it thoroughly, then put it over medium high heat and add the onions and celery. Cook until the celery is translucent, then set aside the vegetables. Put some of the stock into the hot skillet to remove some of that flavorful cooking residue.

3. In a large pot, add the vegetables, the stock (both the stock in the skillet and the remainder), and the barley. Raise it to a simmer, then cook it for an amount of time calculated in step one.

4. When you have 45 minutes left on your cook time, add the potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, and greens.

5. When you’ve reached the stopping point on your barley cooking time, the soup is finished – or at least as finished as it should be before you freeze it. If you cook this soup for the full time before freezing it, it will thaw in a mushy form. Store it in gallon Ziploc freezer bags in the freezer. You’ll have several bags, depending on how full they are.

6. To finish cooking, pull a bag of chili out of the freezer and place it in the refrigerator for 24 hours, then heat it over medium heat on the stove top when you’re ready to eat it.

Final Thoughts

We are constantly raiding our freezer for meals that we’ve prepared in the past. Because we’ve put in weekend time in advance to make sure that we have great meals on hand that we’re sure that we’ll like, we’re pretty confident that we’ll pull out something great that our family will like.

Plus, it’s inexpensive and it makes family dinners possible even on the busiest of weeknights. That’s a big win for us.

]]>http://www.thesimpledollar.com/our-familys-seven-favorite-make-ahead-meals/feed/0Can You Save Money by Becoming Vegetarian?http://www.thesimpledollar.com/can-you-save-money-by-becoming-vegetarian/
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/can-you-save-money-by-becoming-vegetarian/#commentsFri, 16 Jan 2015 19:00:27 +0000http://www.thesimpledollar.com?p=32735&preview_id=32735Beef prices hit record highs last summer and prices for beef, pork, and eggs are expected to climb throughout 2015. Meanwhile, a growing body of research indicates that eating meat and animal products can contribute to a host of health issues, including diabetes and cancer. A recent study published in the journal Cell Metabolism revealed that middle-aged people who ...

Meanwhile, a growing body of research indicates that eating meat and animal products can contribute to a host of health issues, including diabetes and cancer. A recent study published in the journal Cell Metabolism revealed that middle-aged people who consumed lots of protein from animal sources were more likely to die early. Those factors, coupled with growing concern for animals and the environment, are driving more people to at least consider a meat-free diet.

But how does vegetarianism impact a grocery budget? And can you save money by ditching meat for good?

How Vegetarians Can Save Money

Unfortunately, the answer won’t be the same for vegetarians across the board. For starters, grocery prices vary drastically across the country, thus menu planning will never be one-size-fits-all. And vegetarians don’t all eat the same things. After all, some vegetarians pork out on vegan specialty foods or choose an organic-only diet while others might opt for cheap vegetarian staples.

Still, becoming a vegetarian can save you money if you play your cards right. Here are a few tips that can help you save money while improving your health:

Shop Sales

There’s no doubt a cart full of produce can be expensive, but you can still control the cost. If you want to save on fresh ingredients and produce, learn to shop sales.

Learn recipes using as many different fruits and vegetables as possible so you can cook with whatever’s on sale a given week – and ignore the rest. Buying fruits and vegetables that are in season helps, too, although that list can vary drastically based on where you live.

Eat Meat Replacements Sparingly

One way to wean yourself off meat is to take advantage of meat replacement foods, most of which are made with soy. The problem? They are often just as expensive as real meat, and can have questionable ingredients that may not be particularly healthy.

Brands like Morningstar Farms and Boca make these products, and they can be a lifesaver if you substitute them in your favorite meat-laden dishes. However, it’s important to use them sparingly, and to learn how to eat mostly natural foods if you want to save money.

Subsist on Staples

There’s a reason why rice and beans are almost always mentioned whenever grocery shopping on a budget comes up. Not only are both foods nutritious and filling, but they can also be very cheap.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average price of rice in the United States was 72 cents per pound in November 2014, while dried beans averaged $1.46 per pound. Dried beans expand rapidly when cooked, so a pound of beans is a lot of food. If you’re able to plan your meals around these cheap staples, you’ll save a ton of money and enjoy nutritious meals at the same time.

Shop in Bulk

Once you learn how to cook with vegetarian staples such as pasta, rice, and beans, look for ways to buy them in bulk. Not only will you save money, but it’s also nice to have a stash of healthy foods to cook with at home at all times. If you can’t buy large quantities of staples at your local grocery store, check with a Costco, Sam’s Club, or health food store.

Grow a Garden

If you love working outdoors, you might want to consider starting a garden. This can provide more than fresh food; it can give you time outdoors, physical exercise, and a feeling of accomplishment.

If you’re unsure how to get started, begin with a small, temporary garden, planting only a few things your family will eat. Over time, you can grow your garden and add more items as you feel more comfortable.

If you don’t have a green thumb, consider growing just a few pots of plants. Tomatoes, herbs, and peppers seem to prosper in a potted environment, as do potatoes and even beets. If you don’t have a lot of tools to get started, consider borrowing them from a friend or neighbor or buying used shovels, rakes, and pots from a resale site like Craigslist. (See “Reducing the Startup Costs of a Food Garden.”)

Becoming a vegetarian is a lot like anything else in that it can be as expensive or inexpensive as you want it to be. If you make a conscious effort to save money while going meat-free, you likely will.

Any investment we make in our health is likely a good one. After all, good health can’t be purchased, nor can it be bargained for. You either have it or you don’t. So going vegetarian can be a great way to improve both your health and your financial well-being. And if you’re ready to ditch meat, that’s certainly an idea to chew on.

Do you find vegetarian foods to be cheaper or more expensive? What are your favorite vegetarian dishes?

]]>http://www.thesimpledollar.com/can-you-save-money-by-becoming-vegetarian/feed/0What Do New Parents Really Need?http://www.thesimpledollar.com/what-do-new-parents-really-need/
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/what-do-new-parents-really-need/#commentsThu, 15 Jan 2015 18:00:56 +0000http://www.thesimpledollar.com?p=32307&preview_id=32307If you ask baby boomers how parenting has changed over the years, many can name a host of once-safe practices that have since been outlawed. People from my mother’s generation talk about how, as babies, they rode in the front seat of their family car without a car seat. And my mother often jokes about shrouding us in ...

Before outfitting your baby from head to particularly cute toes, think about what you’ll really need. Photo: Gabi Menashe

If you ask baby boomers how parenting has changed over the years, many can name a host of once-safe practices that have since been outlawed.

People from my mother’s generation talk about how, as babies, they rode in the front seat of their family car without a car seat. And my mother often jokes about shrouding us in thick, heavy blankets surrounded by stuffed animals when we slept as infants — a huge no-no in today’s world.

Infant safety has improved dramatically over the years, but at a cost. Where parents once winged it and took care of their babies as best they could, today’s parents must sort through a multitude of safety-themed and “necessary” baby items and contraptions to figure out what they really need. And while some baby gear has led to dramatic improvements in child safety or the ability to transport small children (e.g., car seats and strollers), other newfangled baby items appear to be of questionable value and utility (e.g., wipe warmers).

What do new parents really need? This list aims to shed some light on the subject:

Basic Baby Clothes

Shopping at Babies ‘R’ Us might lead you to believe your baby needs a bikini, a robe, 40 kinds of shoes, and their own formalwear. But newborns only need the basics.

Start with five to 10 long-sleeved onesies, five pairs of soft, cotton pants, some short-sleeved tops, baby socks, nightgowns or pajamas, and bibs. Once you figure out what your baby is most comfortable in, you can expand his or her wardrobe to include additional outfits.

And don’t make the mistake of buying everything in newborn size; buy at least a handful of items in 0-3 months or even 3-6 months. Most new parents drastically overestimate the time their babies will spend in newborn-size clothing. Some babies move up to 0-3 months almost immediately.

Diapers and Wipes

If you’re planning to use basic cloth diapers, you can buy them at your local baby or department store. One perk of going this route is the fact that cloth diapers have multiple uses and are easy to wash and reuse.

If you’re looking for something more modern, you can buy stylish cloth diapers of every shape, color, and size online at sites like Diapers.com or BumGenius.com. If you don’t mind buying used cloth diapers, check eBay or Craigslist for drastically reduced prices.

Parents who plan to use disposable diapers should think long and hard before they stock up ahead of time. Babies often outgrow the smaller sizes quickly, and parents find certain brands of diapers don’t work with their baby at all — or that they prefer a certain brand. Start with a pack of newborn diapers and a few packs of larger sizes before you invest in too many diapers.

Feeding Equipment

Whether you’re breastfeeding or feeding your baby formula, you will likely need at least a few pieces of gear.

For example, breastfeeding mothers might need to invest in a good breast pump and some bottles in order to let other people help with feeding duty. Meanwhile, families who give their babies formula will need bottles, nipples, a bottle cleaner, and perhaps a bottle sanitizer to get started.

Both breast- and bottle-feeding mothers will need a wide range of linens to stay on top of their hungry little newborns. Think burp cloths, bibs, and cotton cleaning cloths to start, then add linens as you find them necessary.

As your baby grows, you’ll also need some kind of highchair to keep him upright while he tries new foods. Some people opt for a free-standing model, while others choose the kind that attaches to a dining chair or table. Fortunately, highchairs are easy to find at secondhand or garage sales, and are usually simple to restore to like-new condition.

Basic Nursery and Linens

Contrary to popular belief, babies do not necessarily need their own bedroom when they are little. In fact, most newborns will end up in their parents’ room for a short amount of time anyway.

But babies do need a separate sleep area free from heavy bedding or stuffed animals. If a crib isn’t available, a Pack ‘n Play or bassinet will work fine at first. In addition to a place to sleep, babies also need a few sets of basic sheets, a swaddling cover or sleep blanket, receiving blankets, and perhaps waterproof sheets.

As much as we love hand-me-down and secondhand items, when it comes to a crib, just be careful: Make sure used cribs meet current safety standards. Older cribs may be coated in lead paint, feature a dangerous drop-side rail, or have slats spaced too far apart, for instance, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Babies do not need those ridiculous baby bedding sets that include a tiny, impractical comforter, crib bumpers, and matching wall hangings. Stick with the basics and you’ll save a ton of money in the process.

Cleaning and Basic Baby Care

Babies will need a good bath now and then. In order to keep your baby smelling fresh and clean, you’ll need a few larger pieces of gear and some odds and ends that can be purchased at a convenience or grocery store.

For example, you might consider buying a small bathtub that can fit easily into your regular tub. They make it easy to wash and rinse your baby using warm water from your bath, and with the convenience of your bathroom and its water-friendly surroundings.

In addition to a basic baby bath, you’ll also need some hygiene items. Here is a short list you might want to buy:

Baby washcloths

Cotton balls

Soft baby brush

Baby thermometer

Infant Q-tips

Rubbing alcohol

Baby wash

Baby shampoo

Baby nail clipper

Petroleum jelly

Hooded baby towels

These items and others will help you keep your baby clean and in optimal health. Just make sure to buy soaps and shampoos that are specifically designed for babies. The extra-mild soap they contain will help keep your baby’s skin from breaking out or getting irritated.

Transportation Gear

While babies used to hit the road on their mothers’ laps, they are now required to travel in the comfort and safety of a rear-facing car seat. Parents who plan to transport their kids frequently may also need a heavy-duty stroller with room for storage, a diaper bag, and sun shields for their car’s windows.

Since the larger items often come with a hefty price tag, many people try to find used strollers and car seats on sites like Craigslist or borrow from friends or family. That will help you save money, but it’s important to check the expiration date of any car seat you’re considering. They are generally only considered safe for five to seven years, and are never safe to use after being involved in an accident. Do your due diligence before buying a used car seat from someone you don’t know.

Other Baby Gear

It’s hard to know what kind of gear your baby will enjoy before he or she makes their appearance. For example, some babies love swinging and can sway back and forth for hours without a peep. But others hate swinging, and many babies don’t like bouncy seats either.

Some babies love activity chairs like an Exersaucer, while others dislike being confined or left alone. Until your baby is here, it’s hard to know what kind of personality he or she will have.

Unfortunately, it’s also hard to find out what your baby likes without trying it first. Many people find this out the hard way when they drop some serious cash on a big piece of baby gear only to find their baby refuses to use it.

One way to experiment with your baby’s temperament is to buy used swings and seats or borrow them from family or friends. That way you can try them out without spending a lot.

Meanwhile, you can often resell your baby gear for close to what you paid if you bought it used in the first place.

Baby Toys

Baby toys are often adorable. Entirely unnecessary, but adorable. The fact is, your newborn is much more likely to stare at the ceiling fan for a few hours than play with the trinket you bought her.

But as babies grow, they’ll want and need toys that can help them investigate and explore. None of it needs to be expensive, and you can often score nice baby items for pennies on the dollar at garage sales, consignment shops, and online resale stores.

In addition to small toys, many parents have gotten on the baby video bandwagon, purchasing Baby Einstein or other DVDs that are supposed to stimulate little minds with music, movement, and bright colors. Just like with toys, you can often get these videos on the cheap at yard sales or online.

Love

It’s true that your baby will need almost everything on this list, but it’s also true that the most important thing they will receive from you is love.

Being held, cuddled, and cared for is something babies crave from the moment they’re born. Skin-to-skin contact, loving care, and hugs can’t be bought or sold, nor can they be made up for later in life if not given freely.

Your baby will forgive you if you don’t get a swing right away, or if you don’t buy them a 20-piece matching nursery set, but they will remember if they don’t get the love and companionship they deserve. Remember that, and you’re well on your way to giving your baby everything he or she needs … and more.

Finding Creative Ways to Save on Baby

Becoming a parent often means a wide range of new expenses, including everything from higher health insurance premiums to diapers to formula, and more.

The good news is you don’t have to run out and buy the biggest and best everything for your baby to be happy. There are a ton of ways to save if you’re willing to be creative and consider all of your options… and your baby will never know the difference.

For example, since baby items are generally only used for short spurts of time, resale is a huge and booming industry. All kinds of websites offer peer-to-peer baby gear on the cheap, and garage sales are usually brimming with baby outfits, toys, and gear. If you’re expecting, you could probably find nearly everything you need at a fraction of the price if you’re willing to buy secondhand.

Having a baby isn’t always cheap, but it’s always worth it. Just make sure you’re not overspending on items your baby won’t want and doesn’t need. Because babies grow into children, and children grow into young adults. And no matter how young your baby is, college is just around the corner.

What do you think new parents need? What are some of the most wasteful items you’ve seen new parents buy?

]]>http://www.thesimpledollar.com/what-do-new-parents-really-need/feed/0Six Strategies for Maximizing the Value of a Warehouse Clubhttp://www.thesimpledollar.com/six-strategies-for-maximizing-the-value-of-a-warehouse-club/
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/six-strategies-for-maximizing-the-value-of-a-warehouse-club/#commentsWed, 31 Dec 2014 14:00:42 +0000http://www.thesimpledollar.com/?p=32714Over the holidays, I had a great conversation with several relatives about the compared merits of Sam’s Club and Costco (our conclusion was that you should just use whichever is most convenient or closest for you), which eventually turned into a discussion of how to get the most value out of a warehouse club membership. ...

Going to Costco? Don’t forget to fill up the gas tank and grab a rotisserie chicken on your way out. Photo: Kyu Kim

Over the holidays, I had a great conversation with several relatives about the compared merits of Sam’s Club and Costco (our conclusion was that you should just use whichever is most convenient or closest for you), which eventually turned into a discussion of how to get the most value out of a warehouse club membership. Naturally, I pulled out my little pocket notebook and started taking notes.

In the end, most of the strategies we shared were tips on specific items which were priced well, but I was more interested in general-purpose strategies that people can use in a lot of situations. Here are six things that can be really useful and valuable if you have a warehouse club membership.

Fill up your gas tank while you’re there

Many warehouse clubs have an attached gas station that requires you to use your membership in order to fuel up. Most of the time, these gas stations offer fuel prices that are about a dime per gallon cheaper than other nearby stations.

Obviously, then, it makes sense to fuel up every time you happen to be near your warehouse club when you’re low on fuel. More than that, though, I fuel up every time I’m there. I always want to leave the parking lot from my local Sam’s Club with a full tank of gas.

The reason is simple – if I fill up every time I’m there, I directly lower the number of times that I’ll have to fill up at other stations that are more expensive than my local warehouse club. In fact, other than road trips, I don’t believe I’ve filled up anywhere else for the last year or so.

Let’s say that I filled up 80% of the time at my local warehouse club, saving a dime per gallon each time, and I drive 10,000 miles per year in a 20 mile per gallon vehicle, that means that 400 gallons were sold to me at a discounted rate, adding up to $40 a year in savings just from the gas alone.

This isn’t always a guarantee, of course. You should always check the gas prices in your area and make sure that your warehouse club is beating those prices before you sign up for a membership.

Pick up prepared foods (like rotisserie chicken)

If you’re ever in a situation to order takeout food, check out your local warehouse club. Their takeout options are generally tasty and extremely competitively priced.

Different family members raved about the Costco rotisserie chickens, with one person claiming it was a weekly meal. A few people spoke highly of the pizza at Sam’s Club – while it’s not my favorite pizza in the world, it is very competitively priced.

A take-out option from a warehouse club can be a very cost-effective substitute if you’ve already made the decision to get a take-out meal. (The value of a take-out meal itself is another question entirely.)

Buy gift cards for restaurants you go to

Warehouse clubs tend to offer gift cards that are available at a slight discount – it’s not a big deal when you can buy a $25 gift card for $24.88, for example.

Where the real bargain comes in is when they sell bulk packs of gift cards associated with a restaurant that you dine at regularly.

Let’s say, for example, that you enjoy eating at Old Chicago Pizza and/or Rock Bottom Brewery, two restaurants owned by CraftWorks Restaurants and Breweries. You like them enough that you might eat at each place once per year.

At Sam’s Club, you can buy $100 in face value in gift cards from CraftWorks for $80. In other words, the next $100 you spend at either of those restaurants immediately receives a 20% discount if you use the discounted gift cards instead.

If a restaurant has discounted gift cards at Sam’s Club, we basically don’t eat there without using a discounted gift card to pay for our food. If you make the assumption that such a discount has no impact on our schedule of eating out, then it’s a direct money saver for us.

(That’s the trick, though. Having a discounted gift card in your wallet shouldn’t cause you to eat out more. It might make you choose that restaurant over a similarly-priced one, but only after you’ve already made the independent decision to eat at a restaurant. If the card encourages you to eat out more, then it doesn’t really save you money at all.)

Use modular meal planning

One of the foundational principles of how Sarah and I plan meals is something we call “modular meal planning.” We keep the ingredients for several meals that our family likes on hand at all times – at least the non-perishable elements – and in adequate bulk. That way, no matter the situation, we can always have a family favorite meal prepared at home that isn’t just a repeat of what we had a few days ago.

Bulk buying of non-perishable foods makes this kind of modular meal planning much easier, and warehouse clubs make this really easy. They tend to offer very good prices on large bulk buys of staples such as dried rice, dried beans, pasta, oatmeal, and other things that we use all the time.

Since we know we’re going to have spaghetti probably one night a week – as it’s one meal that all five of our family members enjoy – it makes sense to buy the items for spaghetti in bulk. Since we have several family-favorite recipes that involve black beans, it makes sense to buy black beans in bulk. Flour, salt, dried basil, tomato sauce – those things show up again and again in recipes we make, so we buy them in bulk.

No matter what happens, we always have something we can make for supper. Thanks to bulk buying at warehouse clubs, it’s usually a cheap meal, too.

Split large bulk purchases

Let’s say you’re considering buying a jumbo pack of toilet paper at your warehouse club. The price per roll is good, but the total price is a bit oppressive for your budget and you also don’t know how you’ll store them. This is a perfect time to enlist help from your friends.

What I’ll do is add the sales tax to the total package on the calculator on my phone (multiplying the price by 1.07, in other words, to factor in a 7% sales tax), then I divide that number by the number of individual packages in the jumbo pack. So, if the big package actually just contains nine 4-packs of toilet paper, I’ll divide it by nine.

Then I’ll text a few friends: “At Sam’s Club. About to buy big bundle of toilet paper. Do you need any? 4 pack for $2.87?” If a couple of them get back to me, then I just go ahead and buy the big jumbo pack.

You can do that with almost any bulk purchase at a warehouse club. As long as you have a friend willing to take a portion of it, you can pay warehouse club prices and not have to deal with the warehouse club bulk.

Another strategy is to simply shop with a friend. Take a friend with you when you go there and then talk about splitting the price of some of the big purchases. “I’ll buy this big bundle of paper towels, you buy that bundle of toilet paper, I’ll buy this box of diapers that’ll fit both of our kids, you buy that jumbo pack of dinner rolls, and then we’ll split everything when we get to your house!”

Go during lunch time or Saturdays and do a “smart loop”

At our local Sam’s Club, there are usually a dozen or so “sample stations” at the store that are offering food samples during lunchtime rushes as well as most of the day on Saturdays. The samples are usually quite generous, too, and don’t cost a thing.

We take advantage of that with a simple strategy. We’ll go shopping there during the peak sample periods, but before buying a thing, we’ll walk through the whole store trying the various samples without putting anything in our carts.

This serves several purposes. The big purpose is that it fills us up a little so that we’re not making impulse food buys. If you shop for food while you’re hungry, you’re much more likely to buy something impulsively that you wouldn’t otherwise stick in your cart. The other purpose is that it allows you to try food items before you buy them so that you can make your own judgment about the quality. Most of the time, I don’t end up buying what’s offered anyway, but I did end up buying some oranges due to the samples (we needed some fruit anyway and oranges fit the bill).

It’s a simple free way to cut back significantly on your impulsive grocery store food purchases.

Final Thoughts

Warehouse clubs can save you a lot of money, but if you’re not using your plan to the full extent, you’re leaving money on the table. The value of a warehouse club goes beyond good prices on frozen goods and electronics and office supplies, but you have to think ahead and do a bit of extra work to extract that value. For us, it’s well worth it – we easily save hundreds a year with our membership when we figure in all of the savings it provides for us, from gas and reduced food impulse buys to modular meals and restaurant gift cards.

]]>http://www.thesimpledollar.com/six-strategies-for-maximizing-the-value-of-a-warehouse-club/feed/0What Do Frugal People Genuinely Do For Fun?http://www.thesimpledollar.com/what-do-frugal-people-genuinely-do-for-fun/
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/what-do-frugal-people-genuinely-do-for-fun/#commentsTue, 23 Dec 2014 14:00:45 +0000http://www.thesimpledollar.com/?p=32463Over the past six months, this is probably the question I have heard the most often from readers. “What do you do for fun?” “Frugality seems so boring because it takes away all the fun.” “What can I do that’s fun and cheap?” Behind all of these questions lies a simple problem: people perceive “fun” ...

]]>Over the past six months, this is probably the question I have heard the most often from readers. “What do you do for fun?” “Frugality seems so boring because it takes away all the fun.” “What can I do that’s fun and cheap?”

Behind all of these questions lies a simple problem: people perceive “fun” to be inherently tied to “spending money,” and thus if you’re not “spending money” you’re not “having fun.” Frugality is inherently about spending less money. Like many people, I view frugality as maximizing the value you get from your money, time, and energy, which means that the idea of “fun” is different than if you just focus on time and energy without worrying about money at all.

There are probably some activities I’d dig into if money were no object at all, but I’ll skip them for now because the expense is simply too high compared to the large number of low-cost things that I otherwise enjoy. For me, it comes down to this: if I have a lot of things I enjoy doing that don’t cost much money, why would I intentionally skip all of them to choose a thing I might enjoy that costs a lot of money? I can’t find a really good justification there.

The Idea of What’s Fun Is Different for Different People

The things I find “fun” are quite likely to be different than the things you find “fun.” Below, I’m going to list twenty things that I find fun, and I’m willing to bet that at least some of them do not sound enjoyable to you. That’s normal and healthy – we’re all different people.

Of course, the reverse is true – there are a lot of activities that other people seem to find “fun” that I don’t enjoy at all, like going to dance clubs or drinking to excess. I just don’t find those things personally appealing.

You Have to Try Lots of Things and Be Open Minded

The number one key to discovering “fun” frugal things to do is to simply be open minded and try lots of things. It’s really hard to walk through a long list of ideas and try each one without finding at least one or two that bring you some kind of personal enjoyment.

The single biggest challenge I’ve noticed regarding this, however, is that many people will skip over things they’ve never tried for silly reasons. They’ll decide something is “nerdy” or “too hard” or some other sketchy reason and skip over it and before long they’ve reduced a long list of ideas down to just a couple – or none at all.

One of the big reasons for that, I think, is that people tend to be creatures of habit. Even people that seem to be quite spontaneous are often drawn to the same activities over and over.

You have to make a conscious choice to regularly try new things, even things that don’t seem “cool” or “exciting” at first. Most of my greatest interests and passions were launched by doing just that. I would find myself dragged into things that I really didn’t have much interest in at all, only to find that something about that activity really clicked with me and blossomed into something new.

Try things. Get outside of your comfort zone a little bit and see what these things are like. Sure, you might find that you were right and you don’t like these things… but you’re also going to find out that you were wrong sometimes and find yourself enjoying new things.

Twenty Free (or Nearly Free) Things I Enjoy Doing

So, how do I spend my free time? Honestly, between my professional responsibilities, my family responsibilities, and my household responsibilities, my free time is often more limited than I’d like. Some of the activities I’ve listed below are activities that fill up only a small sliver of my time in a given month.

Still, taken all together, these activities fill up almost all of my free time in a given month. The little slivers that are left over are usually spent on trying new things.

1. Reading

I am a voracious reader. Not only do I constantly have both a fiction and a nonfiction book going all the time, I also am constantly reading articles and essays. I like to learn and to be entertained by the written word.

The best way to get started in reading, I’ve found, is to either take a topic you’re curious about or a story you’ve enjoyed in the past in other media (like a movie or a television show) and then hit the library to find books that match up well with those things. I have always loved high fantasy, for example – think Game of Thrones – and there’s an endless supply of great novels in that type of setting.

2. Going on long walks

I love to head out of my front door and just start wandering on foot for an hour or two. I might wind up in the country along a gravel road or wind up in the middle of town. I might go by my son’s school or by a cow pasture. It’s different every time.

I also love going to parks that feature lots of walking and hiking trails and just heading out, choosing my paths on the spur of the moment. In fact, without GPS, I probably would have become badly lost.

Just go somewhere that looks interesting and start strolling. If you’re worried about getting lost, take a GPS device with you, mark it where you started, and keep it in your pocket.

3. Playing board and card games

For me, board and card games serve two valuable purposes. One, they’re a social lubricant, meaning that they work really well for starting conversations with the people around me. Two, they cause me to think in all kinds of different ways – creatively, strategically, tactically.

Within a thirty mile radius of my home, there are community game nights almost every night of the week. You don’t actually have to own many games to enjoy playing a lot of games, in other words, though it’s nice to have a couple on your shelf for those times when you have guests. You can often find these groups on Facebook or Meetup.com just by searching.

4. Geocaching

Geocaching combines the joy of going on walks with a treasure hunt aspect because, essentially, that’s what you’re doing – hunting for treasure out in the “real world.” There are geocaches hidden everywhere – tens of thousands in the United States alone – and all you have to do to find them is look them up online at websites like Geocaching.com and head out there with your GPS to find them.

This is a big family activity for us. It often fills up summer weekends and, believe it or not, we went geocaching in rural Illinois on Christmas Eve. It’s something you can do almost anywhere at almost any time with almost anyone.

5. Volunteering

Right now, I have assigned volunteer hours for two different charities and serve on a couple additional boards. It wasn’t hard to get involved with any of these groups – I just showed up and asked.

Why volunteer? Lots of people need different kinds of help. People need food on their plates. They need safe places to go. Even though I’m far from a life-changer in my efforts, I am able to play a part in making those things happen for people who really need it.

It also gives me a chance to meet other people who are also interested in volunteering who often turn out to be wonderful people and good friends.

6. Playing with my children

This ends up eating a surprising amount of my day. My philosophy is that I always have time for my kids, so sometimes I’ll choose not to sweep the floor or let some dishes pile up so that I can play a game with them or draw pictures with them before bedtime.

I am firmly convinced that the time I spend doing this has made them more well rounded, but I think it’s also made me well rounded. I get to see so clearly how they view the world and it’s helped me see the world differently, too.

7. Stargazing

Few things are more awe-inspiring than a cloudless night sky during a new moon when you’re far away from the city lights. The sky fills with stars, many of them just on the very edge of being visible to your naked eye. I can lay down on the ground and stare up at the sky forever on those nights and it creates an incomparable feeling.

I like going out during special astronomical events, like meteor showers, but I also enjoy the ordinary nights, like when I can identify planets and stars and constellations and other night sky features with my children.

8. Rock collecting

I love wandering around rock beds looking for unusual rocks – strange colors, strange textures, and other features like the fossils of long-extinct creatures. Some of my greatest memories have revolved around finding unusual ones, like the trilobite fossils I found in northern Iowa a few summers ago or the magnificent crystals I found in Minnesota in 2006.

Most of the time, I enjoy just identifying and marveling at these rocks, but sometimes I’ll take one or two home with me and add them to the collection that’s in our front garden and on our porch. We have an array of geodes, crystals, and other stones, and each one has a story that goes along with it.

9. Writing

Obviously, I write for a living, but I also enjoy writing for fun. I’ve long tinkered on a number of different novels – a high fantasy novel, an urban fantasy novel, and a sci-fi novel are the ones I’ve toyed with most recently.

I am strongly critical of my own fiction and have a hard time sharing it, but I get a lot of personal enjoyment out of actually writing it. The act of channeling my imagination into the written word is just a deeply fulfilling experience, even if I don’t publish a thing.

10. Taking online classes

With the advent of so many great free online classes sponsored by universities, I’ve found myself taking them on a regular basis, working through the material at my own pace. For example, recently I’ve been working through PLSC 114 at Yale, Introduction to Political Philosophy, and I’m intending to try to put together a sequence of chemistry classes that leads into biochemistry in the future.

Why? I want to understand the world better and I enjoy improving my understanding of the world. Online classes provide a free way of doing that. Depending on what you choose, they can also improve your career marketability, but since I do it for fun, I mostly choose topics that match what I’m thinking about and interested in.

11. Watching movies

We have a family movie night once a week which happens to be a highlight of my week. Sarah and I watch a movie together, just the two of us, about once every two or three weeks.

We usually just watch a movie we already have on hand. Sometimes, we’ll watch a movie from Netflix or something new we’ve rented from Redbox or checked out at the library, too.

12. Listening to NPR and/or podcasts

This is something I often do when I’m doing other chores around the house. I’ll just flip on NPR on the radio in the kitchen and suddenly household tasks become more interesting and thought-provoking. Sometimes, I’ll do the same thing with my laptop and podcasts, pulling up a program that intrigues me and playing it while I work.

I also mix podcasts with my long walks that I mentioned earlier. I’ll stick some earphones around my head and learn something while I’m walking about.

13. Making foods

I enjoy making challenging meals. I can make a mean Hollandaise sauce, for example, and for a long time I was working my way, meal by meal, through Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

Basically, this hobby just expands my meal preparation work, but the end result is often an incredible meal. I really love experimenting with foods, particularly items that come straight out of the garden and are ultra-fresh.

14. Gardening

Speaking of the garden, we maintain a thriving vegetable garden in our backyard as well as some side gardens near our house that are mostly focused on ornamentals.

This is primarily Sarah’s hobby. She runs our garden planning, chooses most of what we plant, and spends more time out there than I do, but I’m certainly a part of it, particularly during planting season when there’s a lot of work to be done in a relatively short time frame. I’ll also pick items throughout the year and help with cleanup in the fall.

15. Playing the guitar

I am terrible at playing guitar, yet I still find it fun. I have a guitar in my office that I pick up pretty often and stumble through a terrible version of Hurt or Come As You Are with the tablatures up on the screen in front of me. I use a guitar I received as a gift many years ago, nothing fancy.

I almost never play in front of other people and I certainly wouldn’t record my disasters, but there are these moments, every once in a while, when I can play something that sounds beautiful to my ears. Those are the moments that make it worthwhile.

16. Going to community festivals and concerts

Almost every community has a special festival or two throughout the year, usually involving parades and exhibits and free concerts and many other such things. Many larger communities have lots of free concerts and other events spread throughout the calendar year.

The easiest way to follow these things is to just watch the community calendar in your city or town – Google helps with finding it – as well as the towns and cities near you.

17. Binge-watching television series

If I ever find myself with a full lazy day (which is rare), I’ll binge-watch a television series, devouring most of (if not all of) a season at once. It’s pretty much the only way I watch television series these days.

I’ll usually do it by checking out a full season of a series on DVD from the library or hitting Netflix and I’ll just plow through tons of episodes.

Doing this transforms television series into long films and the interconnections and subtexts become much more apparent than they would be if you were watching them in a spread-out fashion.

18. Playing disc golf

Several parks in my area offer free disc golf courses. All you have to do is show up with a throwing disc and you’re ready to go.

Disc golf exercises many of the same things for me that golfing does. It teaches patience and focus and aim and getting the “perfect” shot. It lets you spend time in the outdoors in wide open green spaces.

19. Doing resistance yoga

This is my favorite form of home exercise. Basically, it’s normal yoga poses except as you’re doing them, you push as though the air is as thick as sand so that you have to really work to move from position to position.

Not only do I find it a great way to clear my mind, it helps with back and joint pain, too. My back sometimes gets quite sore and resistance yoga clears it up. I try to make this a daily practice and sometimes I slip, but I always wind up regretting it.

20. Journaling

Each day, I spend some time writing down a few things that I’m grateful for and the things I’ll want to remember from that day if I open up that journal in the future. I find this to perhaps be my most uplifting hobby.

At the start of each day, I take a few minutes to write a journal entry about the day before. I ask myself what I will want to remember about that day if I look back in five or ten years. If I can’t think of anything, then I know it wasn’t much of a day. Doing this usually fuels the obvious question for today – what am I going to do today that I will want to remember in five or ten years?

It keeps me grateful for the great things I have, mindful of the long term, and reflective on my life. Plus, a filled journal like this at year’s end is a great thing to hold onto and peek at down the road.

Final Thoughts

None of the above activities cost very much at all to participate in. Each one brings me substantial joy and I wish I could devote more time to almost all of them. I am aware that there were times where I used to feel “bored,” but I basically haven’t felt that way in many years and can’t imagine I ever will again.

The key is to try new things as often as you can. Let down your guard and try things you wouldn’t have otherwise tried. If you find new things that bring you joy, try to keep them in your life. If they don’t, let them fade away – it’s okay.

The problem is that there are so many things to try that it’s easy to be overwhelmed. I just apply a simple filter of cost – is this an expensive hobby or activity to dive into? If it is, I’ll almost always pass.

After all, there are literally dozens of activities I enjoy doing, plus thousands more that I haven’t tried, and all of them are either free or cheap. I can’t see a reason to spend much of my time on activities that are also going to siphon away my money, too.